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ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 



ESSAYS 
ON AGRICULTURE 

EDITED BY 

SHIRLEY DARE ^ABBITT 

Bead Department of English 

L. C. Smith School of A pptied Science 

Syracuse University 

AND 

LOWRY CHARLES WIMBERLY 

Instructor in English, University 
of Nebraska 




GARDEN CITY, N. Y., AND TORONTO 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
1921 






v" 



COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE * COMPANY 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF 

TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, 

INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 



^n!,A630273 

NOV 14 1921 



PRrMTED AT GARDEN riTT, N. T., V. 3. A. 



-V) 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The editors wish to take this opportunity to thank 
both authors and publishers for permission to reprint 
the essays in this book. It is also their desire to express 
their gratitude for the help and encouragement given 
them by Dr. Louise Pound of the Department of 
English, University of Nebraska, and Dean E. A. 
Burnett of the College of Agriculture, University of 
Nebraska. 



CONTENTS 

Introduction ix 

THE DIGNITY OF FARMING 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Farming Ralph Waldo Emerson 1 

II. The Holy Earth . . Liberty H. Bailey 14- 

III. The Love of Nature . Mrs. Schuyler Van 

Rensselaer 26 

IV. Civic Art Frank Waugh 36 

V. The Art of Gardening Mrs. Schuyler Van 

Rensselaer 47 

VI. Culture and Agricui.- 

TURE F. W. Hozce 61 

THE FARMER OF THE PRESENT 

VII. The Fahmer: The Cob- 
ner-Stone of Civiliza- 
tion Theodore Roosevelt 7f) 

VIII. The New Fahmer . . Kenyon L. Butterfield 91 
IX. The New Call to the 

Fabm T. Bayard Collins 101 

X. The Problems of Pro- 
gress Kenyon L. Butterfield 116 

XI. The Nature of the Prob- 
lem Liberty H. Bailey 139 

XII. The Man Who Works 

with His Hands . . Theodore Roosevelt 145 

XIII. The Country Girl . . Martha Foote Crow 165 

THE FARMER AS A MAN OF BUSINESS 

XIV. Business Methods in 

Farming Oscar H. Benson 179 

XV. Farm Management — A 

New Science .... W. J. Spillman 187 

XVI. How the Government 
Works with the 

Farmer David F. Houston 195 

XVII. Principles of European 

Land Credits . . . Dick T. Morgan 210 

XVIII. Reducing the Cost of 
Living — A Comsion 

Problem Edwin T. Meredith 22!) 

XIX. Agricultural Readjust- 
ment AND the High 
Cost of Li\aNG . . . Herbert Hoover 236 

vii , 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



THE FAHMER AS A SCIENTIST 

XX. Trittmphs of Scientific 

Agriculture .... George W. Fiske 269 

XXI. On the Physical Basis 

OF Life Thomas H. Huxley 288 

XXII. New Plant Imjiiorants David Fairchild 301 

XXIII. Bacteria and Soil Fer- 

tility P. E. Brown 316 

XXIV. Worms and the Soil . Charles Darwin 825 
XXV. The Struggle for Exist- 
ence Thomas H. Huxley 331 

XXVI. Electricity Advancing 

Farm Prosperity . . James Burton 34.3 

XXVII. The Gasoline Engine on 

THE Farm Xeno W. Putnam, 350 



OUR FOREFATHERS AND FARMING 

XXVIIT. The Rural Socrates . H. C. Hirzel 369 

XXIX. Extracts from a Diary George Washington 367 
XXX. A Letter to Thomas 

Jefferson George Washington 371 

XXXI. Lincoln ON Agriculture Abraham- Lincoln 374 
XXXII. The Excellences of Agri- 

CVLTUBS <,...-. Xenophon 390 



INTRODUCTION 

A BOOK of essays for use as illustrative material in 
courses in composition scarcely needs an apology. The 
specimen method has long since proved itself pedagogi- 
cally sound, and an invaluable aid to those confronted 
with the problem of teaching others to write. Hence, 
the editors of the present collection of essays, addresses, 
and articles, for courses in composition in agricultural 
colleges, can, in a way, make no claim to originality. 
They feel a certain pride, however, in being among the 
first to attempt to extend the usefulness of a sound 
principle of pedagogy, and to infuse new blood, so to 
speak, into an old idea. 

An idea or principle, however sound, is in danger of 
outliving its usefulness, unless it is given repeated and 
fresh application. Any system stands or falls in 
accordance with its adaptability to new conditions. 
Any plan of teaching becomes ineffective once it shows 
itself inflexible and incapable of growth. The present 
editors, after experience with many types of students, 
have felt for some time that the specimen-book, unless 
kept alive by contact with the demands of the hour, is 
in a fair way to share the fate of certain other academic 
traditions, and to become so much pedagogical lumber. 
It is liable, in other words, to become "class-worn," to 
become a commonplace, and thereby cease to make its 
presence felt. A recent textbook on English composi- 
tion has gone so far as to taboo the traditional expres- 



X INTRODUCTION 

sion, theme, as being stereotyped, and, because of its 
classroom associations, too unsuggestive of the practical 
problems of writing. The theme is to be written, of 
course, but not under that name, and is no longer to be 
recognized as a kind of writing peculiar to students and 
to text-books on rhetoric. It is in some such manner 
that the editors of "Essays on Agriculture" have come 
to regard the specimen method. An invaluable method, 
it must not be allowed to die of that academic inertia 
which always results from failure on the part of the 
instructor to appreciate those new problems which are 
constantly arising wherever there is life and progress. 

A new problem, and one of vital import for the 
instructor in composition, is that of meeting the peculiar 
needs of the technical student. The recognition of 
agriculture as among the chief branches of modem 
learning, the growing tendency toward speciahzation in 
the field of agriculture, and the consequent enlargement 
of the curriculum of the college of agriculture, make 
it imperative that the instructor in even so general a 
subject as composition consult the requirements of the 
hour, and, if he is teaching agricultural students, recog- 
nize at once that his methods of teaching must take care 
of the sf>ecial problems of such students. Old means, if 
employed here at all, must be employed under new and 
particular conditions. If the specimen method is indis- 
pensable in courses where the student is seeking only a 
general education, how, the question arises, may it be 
made most effective in courses where the aim of the 
student is more special.? If it serves the purposes of 
the student of liberal arts, how may it best serve the 
purposes of the student of agriculture.? It is through 



INTRODUCTION xi 

an earnest desire to answer this question satisfactorily 
far themselves and for others that the present editors 
have prepared "Essays on Agriculture." 

As indicated above, the general purpose of this col- 
lection of essays is quite in keeping with the aims of 
other books of model selections for use in composition, 
and the editors feel safe in taking for granted that the 
instructor has a close familiarity with the specimen 
method. The study of composition through the 
analysis and imitation of effective pieces of style has 
had such vogue of late years, that material selected 
for such study takes its place immediately as an 
integi'al part of any practical course in writing. The 
essays in the present collection may be studied with a 
view to imitation from the standpoint of both form 
and content. The principles which underlie successful 
organization in writing may here be seen in operation. 
Systematic rhetoric is not to be decried; rather, it is 
presupposed, but the editors of "Essays on Agricul- 
ture" believe that the student of composition is not 
unlike the student of engineering, in that he learns a 
great deal when given an opportunity to hear the hum 
of machinery and to watch the actual "wheels go 
round." In addition to serving as examples of effective 
writing, the essays furnish an invaluable source for 
discussions and for stimulation of thought. They pro- 
vide an extensive fund of laboratory material for oral 
and written discussion. 

The instructor in composition feels that the battle 
is more than half won, if he can bring the student to 
the point of wanting to write. But because of the 
virtual identity of style and substance, of form and 



xil INTRODUCTION 

content, it is generally true that one does not have an 
impulse to write, unless one has something to say. It 
becomes the duty of the instructor, then, to help the 
beginning writer not only as regards expression, or mere 
form, but as regards ideas as well. It is the experience 
of most teachers that a student is quick to respond 
when in the presence of that which is familiar and 
interesting, but is, on the whole, apathetic and indif- 
ferent toward that which is remote and of no concern 
to him. Obviously, the student of agriculture is inter- 
ested in agriculture. He likes to talk about the problems 
of farm life — the movement away from the country to 
the city, the best methods of farming, the successful 
management of an eighty-acre farm, the relation of the 
farmer to the government, or the place of the farm in 
the economic world. If he is so ready and so eager to 
talk about matters relating to agriculture, it should not 
be difficult to interest him in writing about such matters. 
It only remains to show him that the written word is 
quite as natural a means of expression as the spoken 
word. Like other people, the student of agriculture is 
reticent about that of which he knows nothing, but is 
communicative in regard to that which he knows. 

"Essays on Agriculture" is an attempt to meet the 
student of agriculture on his own ground, an endeavor 
to obviate those many problems which invariably arise 
when the student is required to write about subjects 
which are unfamiliar and of no immediate concern to 
him. It is an effort to show the student of agriculture 
that he, too, has a place in the sun, to help him see 
that he has something to say, that he has an abundance 
of material ready at hand, a wealth of ideas eminently 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

worthy of expression, to make him realize that not only 
does he have material and ideas, but also to make him 
see that agriculture is of enough significance to occupy 
his most careful attention, that it has occupied the 
attention of such thinkers as Emerson, Lincoln, and 
Washington, and that at the present time it is taking 
its proper and lofty place in the affairs of the world. 
It is an attempt, among other things, to make the 
student of agriculture believe in himself, and have faith 
in his calling; for without faith there can be no prog- 
ress. The present editors feel that such a student will 
want to write, once he sees that his ideas are no less 
worthy of being spoken of and written about than are 
the ideas of the educator, the doctor, the preacher, the 
lawj'er, or the man of business. The material for the 
present collection has been chosen with various require- 
ments in mind. Some of the essays have historical inter- 
est ; some are literary in character ; others are quite 
technical or scientific ; most of them, as is to be expected 
in a book of this kind, are of a widely practical nature. 
On the whole, an effort has been made to glean articles 
which would be, not only of instructive, but of inspira- 
tional value as well. Touching as it does, then, in one 
way or another, upon the general matters of agricul- 
ture, this book should help the student of agriculture 
approach the problems of life from his own point 
of view, should aid liim in realizing his fundamental rela- 
tion to his fellow-man, and should encourage and guide 
him in intei-preting, in his own way, these problems and 
this relationship. 



THE DIGNITY OF FARMING 



I 

FARMING* 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

The glory of the farmer is that, in the division of 
labors, it is his part to create. All trade rests at last 
on his primitive activity. He stands close to Nature; 
he obtains from the earth the bread and the meat. The 
food which was not, he causes to be. The farmer was 
the first man, and all historic nobility rests on posses- 
sion and use of land. Men do not like hard work, but 
every man has an exceptional respect for tillage, and a 
feeling that this is the original calling of his race, that 
he himself is only excused from it by some circumstance 
which made him delegate it for a time to other hands. 
If he have not some skill which recommends him to the 
farmer, some product for which the farmer will give him 
corn, he must himself return into his due place among 
the planters. And the profession has in all eyes its 
ancient charm, as standing nearest to God, the first 
cause. 

Then the beauty of Nature, the tranquillity and inno- 
cence of the countryman, his independence, and his pleas- 
ing arts, — ^the care of bees, of poultry, of sheep, of cows, 
the dairy, the care of hay, of fruits, of orchards and 
forests, and the reaction of these on the workman, in 
giving him a strength and plain dignity, like the face 

* From "Society and Solitude," by permission of Houghton Mifflin 
Company. 



2 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

and manners of Nature, all men acknowledge. All men 
keep the farm in reserve as an asylum where, in case of 
mischance, to hide their poverty, — or a solitude, if they 
do not succeed in society. And who knows how many 
glances of remorse are turned this way from the bank- 
rupts of trade, from mortified pleaders in courts and 
senates, or from the victims of idleness and pleasure? 
Poisoned by town life and town vices, the sufferer 
resolves: "Well, my children, whom I have injured, 
shall go back to the land, to be recruited and cured by 
that which should have been my nursery, and now shall 
be their hospital." 

The farmer's office is precise and important, but you 
must not try to paint him in rose-color; you cannot 
make pretty compliments to fate and gravitation, whose 
minister he is. He represents the necessities. It is the 
beauty of the great economy of the world that makes his 
comeliness. He bends to the order of the seasons, the 
weather, the soils and crops, as the sails of a ship bend 
to the wind. He represents continuous hard labor, year 
in, year out, and small gains. He is a slow person, timed 
to Nature, and not to city watches. He takes the pace 
of seasons, plants, and chemistry. Nature never hur- 
ries: atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her 
work. The lesson one learns in fishing, yachting, hunt- 
ing, or planting, is the manners of Nature; patience 
with the delays of wind and sun, delays of the seasons, 
bad weather, excess or lack of water, — -patience with the 
slowness of our feet, with the parsimony of our strength, 
with the largeness of sea and land we must traverse, etc. 
The farmer times himself to Nature, and acquires that 
livelong patience which belongs to her. Slow, narrow 



FARMING 3 

man, his rule is, that the earth shall feed and clothe him ; 
and he must wait for his crop to grow. His entertain- 
ments, his liberties, and his spending must be on a 
farmer's scale, and not on a merchant's. It were as false 
for farmers to use a wholesale and massj expense, as 
for states to use a minute economy. But if thus pinched 
on one side, he has compensatory advantages. He is 
permanent, clings to his land as the rocks do. In the 
town where I live, farms remain in the same families 
for seven and eight generations ; and most of the first 
settlers (in 1635), should they reappear on the farms 
today, would find their own blood and names still in 
possession. And the like fact holds in the surrounding 
towns. 

This hard work will always be done bj^ one kind of 
man ; not by scheming speculators, not by soldiers, nor 
professors, nor readers of Tennyson, but by men of 
endurance, — deep-chested, long-winded, tough, slow and 
sure, and timely. The farmer has a great health, and 
the appetite of health, and means to his end: he has 
broad lands for his home, wood to burn great fires, 
plenty of plain food; his milk, at least, is un watered: 
and for sleep, he has cheaper and better and more of it 
than citizens. 

He has grave trusts confided to him. In the great 
household of Nature, the farmer stands at the door of 
the bread-room, and weighs to each his loaf. It is for 
him to say whether men shall marry or not. Early 
marriages and the number of births are indissolubly 
connected with abundance of food ; or, as Burke said, 
"Man breeds at the mouth." Then he is the Board of 
Quarantine. The farmer is a hoarded capital of health. 



4 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

as the farm is the capital of wealth ; and it is from him 
that the health and power, moral and intellectual, of 
the cities came. The city is alwaj's recruited from the 
country. The men in cities who are the centers of 
energy, the driving-wheels of trade, politics, or practical 
arts, and the women of beauty and genius are the chil- 
dren or grandchildren of farmers, and are spending the 
energies which their fathers' hardy, silent life accumu- 
lated in frosty furrows, in poverty, necessity, and 
darkness. 

He is the continuous benefactor. He who digs a well, 
constructs a stone fountain, plants a grove of trees by 
the roadside, plants an orchard, builds a durable house, 
reclaims a swamp, or so much as puts a stone seat by 
the wayside, makes the land so far lovely and desirable, 
makes a fortune which he cannot carry away with him, 
but which is useful to his country long afterwards. The 
man that works at home helps society at large with 
somewhat more of certainty than he who devotes him- 
self to charities. If it be true that, not by votes of 
political parties, but by the eternal laws of political 
economy, slaves are driven out of a slave State as fast 
as it is surrounded by free States, then the true aboli- 
tionist is the farmer, who, heedless of laws and consti- 
tutions, stands all day in the field, investing his labor 
in the land, and making a product with which no forced 
labor can compete. 

We commonly say that the rich man can speak the 
truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of 
opinion and action ; — and that is the theory of nobility. 
But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, 
not the -man of large income and large expenditure, but 



FARMING 5 

solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and 
is steadily kept so. 

In English factories, the boy that watches the loom, 
to tie;, the thread when the wheel stops to indicate that 
a thread is broken, is called a minder. And in this great 
factory of our Copernican globe, shifting its slides, 
rotating its constellations, times, and tides, bringing now 
the day of planting, then of watering, then of weeding, 
then of reaping, then of curing and storing, — .the farmer 
is the minder. His machine is of colossal proportions, 
— the diameter of the water-wheel, the arms of the levers, 
the power of the battery, are out of all mechanic 
measure; — and it takes him long to understand Its parts 
and its working. This pump never "sucks" ; these 
screws are never loose ; this machine is never out of gear ; 
the vat and piston, wheels and tires, never wear out, but 
are self-repairing. 

Who are the farmer's servants? Not the Irish, nor 
the coolies, but Geology and Chemistry, the quarry of 
the air, the water of the brook, the lightning of the 
cloud, the castings of the worm, the plough of the frost. 
Long before he was bom, the sun of ages decomposed 
the rocks, mellowed his land, soaked it with light and 
heat, covered it with vegetable film, then with forests, 
and accumulated the sphagnum whose decays made the 
peat of his meadow. 

Science has shown the great circles in which Nature 
works; the manner in which marine plants balance the 
marine animals, as the land plants supply the oxygen 
which the animals consume, and the animals the carbon 
which the plants absorb. These activities are incessant. 
Nature works on a method of all for each and each for 



6 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTUBE 

all. The strain that is made on one point bears on every 
arch and foundation of the structure. There is a per- 
fect sohdarity. You cannot detach an atom from its 
holdings, or strip off from it the electricity, gravitation, 
chemic affinity, or the relation to light and heat, and 
leave the atom bare. No, it brings with it its universal ties. 

Nature, like a cautious testator, ties up her estate, 
so as not to bestow it all on one generation, but has a 
forelooking tenderness and equal regard to the next and 
the next, and the fourth, and the fortieth age. 

There lie the inexhaustible magazines. The eternal 
rocks, as we call them, have held their oxygen or lime 
undiminished, entire as it was. No particle of oxygen 
can rust or wear, but has the same energy as on the first 
morning. The good rocks, those patient waiters, say 
to him: "We have the sacred power as we received it. 
We have not failed of our trust, and now — when in our 
inunense day the hour is at last struck — take the gas we 
have hoarded ; mingle it with water ; and let it be free 
to grow in plants and animals, and obey the thought 
of man." 

The earth works for him; the earth is a machine 
Avhich yields almost gratuitous sen'^ice to every applica- 
tion of intellect. Every plant is a manufacturer of 
soil. In the stomach of the plant development begins. 
The tree can draw on the Avhole air, the whole earth, on 
all the rolling main. The plant is all suction-pipe, — 
imbibing from the ground by its root, from the air by 
its leaves, with all its might. 

The air works for him. The atmosphere, a sharp sol- 
vent, drinks the essence and spirit of every solid on the 
globe, — menstruum which melts the mountains into it. 



FARMING T 

Air is matter subdued by heat. As the sea is the grand 
receptacle of all rivers, so the air is the receptacle from 
which all things spring, and into which they all return. 
The invisible and creeping air takes form and so'lid mass. 
Our senses are sceptics, and believe only the impression 
of the moment, and do not believe the chemical fact that 
these huge mountain-chains are made up of gases and 
rolling wind. But Nature is as subtle as she is strong. 
She turns her capital day by day; deals never with 
dead, but ever with quick subjects. All things are flow- 
ing, even those that seem immovable. The adamant is 
always passing into smoke. The plants imbibe the 
materials which they want from the air and the ground. 
They burn, that is, exhale and decompose their own 
bodies into the air and earth again. The animal bums, 
or undergoes the like perpetual consumption. The earth 
burns, — the mountains burn and decompose, slower, but 
incessantly. It is almost inevitable to push the gener- 
alization up into higher parts of nature, rank over rank 
into sentient beings. Nations burn with internal fire of 
thought and affection, which wastes while it works. We 
shall find finer combustion and finer fuel. Intellect is a 
fire: rash and pitiless it melts this wonderful bone-house 
which is called man. Genius even, as it is the greatest 
good, is the greatest harm. Whilst all thus burns, — ^the 
universe in a blaze kindled from the torch of the sun, — 
it needs a perpetual tempering, a phlegm, a sleep, atmos- 
pheres of azote, deluges of water, to check the fury of 
the conflagration; a hoarding to check the spending; a 
centripetence equal to the centrifugence ; and this is 
invariably supplied. 

The railroad dirt-cars are good excavators ; but there 



8 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

is no porter like Gravitation, who will bring down any 
weights which man cannot carry, and if he wants aid, 
knows where to find his fellow-laborers. Water works 
in masses, and sets its irresistible shoulder to your mills 
or your ships, or transports vast boulders of rock in 
its iceberg a thousand miles. But its far greater power 
depends on its talent of becoming little, and entering 
the smallest holes and pores. By this agency, carrying 
in solution elements needful to every plant, the vege- 
table world exists. 

But as I said, we must not paint the farmer in rose- 
color. Whilst these grand energies have wrought for 
him, and made his task possible, he is habitually engaged 
in small economies and is taught the power that lurks in 
petty things. Great is the force of a few simple arrange- 
ments ; for instance, the powers of a fence. On the 
prairie you wander a hundred miles, and hardly find a 
stick or a stone. At rare intervals, a thin oak opening 
has been spared, and every such section has been long 
occupied. But the farmer manages to procure wood 
from far, puts up a rail fence, and at once the seeds 
sprout and the oaks rise. It Avas only browsing and 
fire which had kept them down. Plant fruit-trees by the 
roadside and their fruit will never be allowed to ripen. 
Draw a pine fence about them and for fifty years they 
mature for the owner their delicate fruit. There is a 
great deal of enchantment in a chestnut rail or picketed 
pine boards. 

Nature suggests every economical expedient some- 
where on a great scale. Set out a pine-tree, and it dies 
in the first year, or lives a poor spindle. But Nature 
drops a pine-cone in Mariposa, and it lives fifteen cen- 



FARMING 9 

turies, grows three or four hundred feet high, and thirty 
in diameter, — grows in a grove of giants, like a colon- 
nade of Thebes. Ask the tree how it was done. It did 
not grow on a ridge but in a basin, where it found deep 
soil, cold enough and dry enough for the pine ; defended 
itself from the sun by growing in groves, and from the 
wind by the walls of the mountain. The roots that shot 
deepest, and the stems of happiest exposure, drew the 
nourishment from the rest, until the less thrifty perished 
and manured the soil for the stronger, and the mam- 
moth Sequoias rose to their enormous proportions. The 
traveller who saw them remembered his orchard at home, 
where every year, in the destroying wind, his forlorn 
trees pined like suffering virtue. In September when 
the pears hang heaviest, and are taking from the sun 
their gay colors, comes usually a gusty day which shakes 
the whole garden, and throws down the heaviest fruit in 
bruised heaps. The planter took the hint of the 
Sequoias, built a high wall, or — better — surrounded the 
orchard with a nursery of birches and evergreens. Thus 
he had the mountain basin in miniature ; and his pears 
grew to the size of melons, and the vines beneath them 
ran an eighth of a mile. But this shelter creates a new 
climate. The wall that keeps off the strong wind keeps 
off the cold wind. The high wall reflecting the heat 
back on the soil gives that acre a quadruple share of 
sunshine. 

Enclosing in the garden square 

A dead and standing pool of air, 

and makes a little Cuba within it, whilst all without is 
Labrador. 

The chemist comes to his aid every year by following 



10 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

out some new hint drawn from Nature, and now affirms 
that this dreary space occupied by the farmer is need- 
less : he will concentrate his kitchen-garden into a box 
of one or two rods square, will take the root* into his 
laboratory; the vines and stalks and stems may go 
sprawling about in the fields outside, he will attend to 
the roots in his tub, gorge them with food that is good 
for them. The smaller his garden, the better he can 
feed it, and the larger the crop. As he nursed his 
Thanksgiving turkeys on bread and milk, so he will 
pamper his peaches and grapes on the viands they like 
best. If they have an appetite for potash, or salt, or 
iron, or ground bones, or even now and then for a dead 
hog, he will indulge them. They keep the secret well, 
and never tell on your table whence they drew their sun- 
set complexion or their delicate flavors. 

See what the farmer accomplishes by a cartload of 
tiles: he alters the climate by letting off water which 
kept the land cold through constant evaporation, and 
allows the warm rain to bring down into the roots the 
temperature of the air and of the surface-soil; and he 
deepens the soil, since the discharge of this standing 
water allows the roots of his plants to penetrate below 
the surface of the subsoil, and accelerates the ripening 
of the crop. The town of Concord is one of the oldest 
towns in this country, far on now in its third century. 
The selectmen have once in every five years perambu- 
lated the boundaries, and yet, in this very year, a large 
quantity of land has been discovered and added to the 
town without a murmur of complaint from any quarter. 
By drainage we went down to a subsoil we did not know, 
and have found there is a Concord under old Concord, 



FARMING 11 

which we are now getting the best crops from ; a Middle- 
sex under Middlesex ; and, in fine, that Massachusetts 
has a basement story more valuable, and that promises 
to pay a better rent than all the superstructure. But 
these tiles have acquired by association a new interest. 
These tiles are political economists, confuters of Mal- 
thus and Ricardo ; they are so many young Americans 
announcing a better era, — more bread. They drain the 
land, make it sweet and friable ; have made English Chat 
Moss a garden, and will now do as much for the Dismal 
Swamp. But beyond this benefit, they are the text of 
better opinions and better auguries for mankind. 

There has been a nightmare, bred in England, of indi- 
gestion and spleen among landlords and loomlords, 
namely, the dogma that men breed too fast for the 
powers of the soil; that men multiply in a geometrical 
ratio, whilst corn only in an arithmetical; and hence 
that, the more prosperous we are, the faster we approach 
these frightful limits: nay, the plight of every new gen- 
eration is worse than of the foregoing, because the first 
comers take up the best lands ; the next, the second best ; 
and each succeeding wave of population is driven to 
poorer, so that the land is ever yielding less returns to 
enlarging hosts of eaters. Henry Carey of Philadelphia 
replied: "Not so, Mr. Malthus, but just the opposite of 
so is the fact." 

The first planter, the savage, without helpers, without 
tools, looking chiefly to safety from his enemy, — man or 
beast, — takes poor land. The better lands are loaded 
with timber, which he cannot clear; they need drainage, 
which he cannot attempt. He cannot plough, or fell 
trees, or drain the rich swamp. He is a poor creature ; 



12 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTUUE 

he scratches with a sharp stick, lives in a cave or a 
hutch, has no road but the trail of the moose or bear; 
he lives on their flesh when he can kill one, on roots 
and fruits when he cannot. He falls, and is lame; he 
coughs, he has a stitch in his side, he has a fever and 
chills : when he is hungry, he cannot always kill and eat 
a bear ; — chances of war, — sometimes the bear eats him. 
'Tis long before he digs or plants at all, and then only 
a patch. Later he learns that his planting is better 
than hunting; that the earth works faster for him than 
he can work for himself, — works for him when he is 
asleep, when it rains, when heat overcomes him. The 
sunstroke which knocks him down brings his corn up. 
As his family thrive, and other planters come up around 
him, he begins to fell trees, and clear good land; and 
when, by and by, there is more skill, and tools and roads, 
the new generations are strong enough to open the low- 
lands, where the wash of mountains has accumulated the 
best soil, which yield a hundredfold the former crops. 
The last lands are the best lands. It needs science and 
great numbers to cultivate the best lands, and in the 
best manner. Thus true political economy is not mean 
but liberal, and on the pattern of the sun and sky. 
Population increases in the ratio of morality ; credit 
exists in the ratio of morality. 

Meantime we cannot enumerate the incidents and 
agents of the farm without reverting to their influence 
on the farmer. He carries out this cumulative prepara- 
tion of means to their last effect. This crust of soil 
which ages have refined he refines again for the feeding 
of a civil and instructed people. The great elements 
with which he deals cannot leave him unafl^ected, or 



FARMING 13 

unconscious of his ministry ; but their influence some- 
what resembles that which the same Nature has on the 
child — of subduing and silencing liim. We see the 
farmer with pleasure and respect, when we think what 
powers and utilities are so meekly worn. He knows 
every secret of labor: he changes the face of the land- 
scape. Put him on a new planet, and he would know 
where to begin ; yet there is no arrogance in his bearing, 
but a perfect gentleness. The farmer stands well on 
the world. Plain in manners as in dress, he would not 
shine in palaces ; he is absolutely unknown and inadmis- 
sible therein ; living or dying, he never shall be heard 
of in them ; yet the drawing-room heroes put down beside 
him would, shrivel in his presence — he solid and unex- 
pressive, they expressed to gold-leaf. But he stands 
well on the world, — as Adam did, as an Indian does, as 
Homer's heroes, Agamemnon or Achilles, do. He is a 
person whom a poet of any clime — Milton, Firdusi, or 
Cervantes — .would appreciate as being really a piece of 
the old Nature, comparable to sun and moon, rainbow 
and flood: because he is, as all natural persons are, 
representatives of Nature as much as these. 

That uncorrupted behavior which we admire in ani- 
mals and in young children belongs to him, to the hunter, 
the sailor, — the man who lives in the presence of Nature. 
Cities force growth, and make men talkative and enter- 
taining, but they make them artificial. What possesses 
interest for us is the riaturel of each, his constitutional 
excellence. This is forever a surprise, engaging and 
lovely ; we cannot be satiated with knowing it, and about 
it; and it is this which the conversation with Nature 
cherishes and guards. 



II 

THE HOLY EARTH* 

Liberty H. Bailky 

first, the statement 

So BOUNTIFUL hath been the earth and so securely 
have we drawn from it our substance, that we have taken 
it all for granted as if it were only a gift, and with 
little care or conscious thought of the consequences of 
our use of it; nor have we very much considered the 
essential relation that we bear to it as living parts in 
the vast creation. 

It is good to think of ourselves — of this teeming, tense, 
and aspiring human race — as a helpful and contributing 
part in the plan of a cosmos, and as participators in 
some far-reaching destiny. The idea of responsibility 
is much asserted of late, but we relate it mostly to the 
attitude of persons in the realm of conventional con- 
duct, which we have come to regard as very exclusively 
the realm of morals; and we have established certain 
formalities that satisfy the conscience. But there is 
some deeper relation than all of this, which we must 
recognize and the consequences of which we must prac- 
tise. There is a directer and more personal obligation 
than that which expends itself in loyalty to the manifold 
organizations and social requirements of the present 

* FroBi "The Holy Earth," by permission of the author. 

14 



THE HOLY EARTH 15 

day. There is a more fundamental cooperation in the 
scheme of things than that which deals with the pro- 
prieties or which centers about the selfishness too often 
expressed in the salvation of one's soul. 

We can be only onlookers on that part of the cosmos 
that we call the far heavens, but it is possible to cooper- 
ate in the processes on the surface of the sphere. This 
cooperation may be conscious and definite, and also use- 
ful to the earth ; that is, it may be real. What means 
this contact with our natural situation, this relation- 
ship to the earth to which we are born, and what signify 
this new exploration and conquest of the planet and 
these accumulating prophecies of science.? Does the 
mothership of the earth have any real meaning to us? 

All this does not imply a relation only with material 
and physical things, nor any effort to substitute a 
nature religion. Our relation with the planet must be 
raised into the realm of spirit; we cannot be fully use- 
ful otherwise. We must find a way to maintain the 
emotions in the abounding commercial civilization. 
There are two kinds of materials, — those of the native 
earth and the idols of one's hands. The latter are much 
in evidence in modem life, with the conquests of engi- 
neering, mechanics, architecture, and all the rest. We 
visualize them everywhere, and particularly in the great 
centers of population. The tendency is to be removed 
farther and farther from the everlasting backgrounds. 
Our religion is detached. 

We come out of the earth and we have a right to the 
use of the materials; and there is no danger of crass 
materialism if we recognize the original materials as 
divine and if we understand our proper relation to the 



16 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

creation, for then will gross selfishness in the use of 
them be removed. 

This will necessarily mean a better conception of 
property and of one's obligation in the use of it. We 
shall conceive of the earth, which is the common 
habitation, as inviolable. One does not act rightly 
toward one's fellows if one does not know how to act 
rightly toward the earth. 

Nor does this close regard for the mother earth imply 
any loss of mysticism or of exaltation: quite the con- 
trary. Science but increases the mystery of the un- 
known and enlarges the boundaries of the spiritual 
vision. To feel that one is a useful and cooperat- 
ing part in nature is to give one kinship, and to open 
the mind to the great resources and the high 
enthusiasms. 

Here arise the fundamental common relations. Here 
arise also the great emotions and conceptions of sub- 
limity and grandeur, of majesty and awe, the uplift of 
vast desires, — when one contemplates the earth and the 
universe and desires to take them into the soul and to 
express oneself in their terms ; and here also the respon- 
sible practices of life take root. 

So much are we now involved in problems of human 
groups, so persistent are the portrayals of our social 
afflictions, and so well do we magnify our woes by insist- 
ing on them, so much in sheer weariness do we provide 
antidotes to soothe our feelings and to cause us to for- 
get by means of many empty diversions, that we may 
neglect to express ourselves in simple, free, personal joy 
and to separate the obligation of the individual from 
the irresponsibilities of the mass. 



THE HOLY EARTH 17 

IN THE BEGINNING 

It suits my purpose to quote the first sentence in the 
Hebrew Scripture: In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth. 

This is a statement of tremendous reach, introducing 
the cosmos ; for it sets forth in the fewest words the 
elemental fact that the formation of the created earth 
lies above and before man, and that therefore it is not 
man's but God's. Man finds himself upon it, with many- 
other creatures, all parts in some system which, since it 
is beyond man and superior to him, is divine. 

Yet the planet was not at once complete when life 
had appeared upon it. The whirling earth goes through 
many vicissitudes ; the conditions on its fruitful surface 
are ever-changing; and the forms of life must meet the 
new conditions : so does the creation continue, and every 
day sees the genesis in process. All life contends, some- 
times ferociously but more often bloodlessly and benignly, 
and the contention results in momentary equilibrium, one 
set of contestants balancing another ; but every change 
in the outward conditions destroys the equation and a 
new status results. Of all the disturbing living factors, 
man is the greatest. He sets mighty changes going, 
destroying forests, upturning the sleeping prairies, 
flooding the deserts, deflecting the courses of the rivers, 
building great cities. He operates consciously and in- 
creasingly with plan aforethought; and therefore he 
carries heavy responsibility. 

This responsibility is recognized in the Hebrew Scrip- 
ture, from which I have quoted; and I quote it again 
because I know of no other Scripture that states it so 
well. Man is given the image of the Creator, even when 



18 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

formed from the dust of the earth, so complete is his 
power and so real his dominion : And God blessed them : 
and God said unto them, Be finiitful, and multiply, and 
replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 
One cannot receive all these privileges without bear- 
ing the obligation to react and to partake, to keep, to 
cherish, and to cooperate. We have assumed that there 
is no obligation to an inanimate thing, as we consider 
the earth to be: but man should respect the conditions 
in which he is placed ; the earth yields the living crea- 
ture; man is a living creature; science constantly nar- 
rows the gulf between the animate and the inanimate, 
between the organized and the inorganized ; evolution 
derives the creatures from the earth ; the creation is one 
creation. T must accept all or reject all. 

THE EARTH IS GOOD 

It is good to live. We talk of death and of lifeless- 
ness, but we know only of life. Even our prophecies 
of death are prophecies of more life. We know no better 
world: whatever else there may be is of things hoped 
for, not of things seen. The objects are here, not hidden 
nor far to seek : And God saw everything that He had 
made, and, behold, it was very good. 

These good things are the present things and the 
living things. The account is silent on the things that 
were not created, the chaos, the darkness, the abyss. 
Plato, in the "Republic," reasoned that the works of the 
Creator must be good because the Creator is good. This 
goodness is in the essence of things ; and we sadly need 



THE HOLY EARTH 19 

to make it a part in our philosophy of life. The eartli 
is the scene of our life, and probably the very source 
of it. The heaven, so far as human beings know, is the 
source only of death; in fact, we have peopled it 
with the dead. We have built our philosophy on the 
dead. 

We seem to have overlooked the goodness of the earth 
in the establishing of our affairs, and even in our philos- 
ophies. It is reserved as a theme for preachers and for 
poets. And yet, the goodness of the planet is the basic 
fact in our existence. 

I am not speaking of good In an abstract way, in 
the sense in which some of us suppose the Creator to 
have expressed Himself as pleased or satisfied with His 
work. The earth is good in itself, and its products are 
good In themselves. The earth sustains all things. It 
satisfies. It matters not whether this satisfaction is the 
result of adaptation in the process of evolution ; the 
fact remains that the creation is good. 

To the common man the earth propounds no system 
of philosophy or of theology. The man makes his own 
personal contact, deals with the facts as they are or as 
he conceives them to be, and is not swept into any sys- 
tem. He has no right to assume a bad or evil earth, 
although it Is difficult to cast off the lilndrance of cen- 
turies of teaching. When he Is properly educated he 
will get a new resource from his relationships. 

It may be difficult to demonstrate this goodness. In 
the nature of things we must assume It, although we 
know that we could not subsist on a sphere of the oppo- 
site qualities. The important consideration is that we 
appreciate it, and this not in any sentimental and im- 



20 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

personal way. To every bird the air is good; and a 
man knows it is good if he is worth being a man. To 
every fish the water is good. To every beast its food is 
good, and its time of sleep is good. The creatures 
experience that life is good. Every man in his heart 
knows that there is goodness and wholeness in the rain, 
in the wind, the soil, the sea, the glory of sunrise, in the 
trees, and in the sustenance that we derive from the 
planet. When we grasp the significance of this situa- 
tion, we shall forever supplant the religion of fear with 
a religion of consent. 

We are so accustomed to these essentials — to the rain, 
the wind, the soil, the sea, the sunrise, the trees, the 
sustenance — that we may not include them in the cate- 
gories of the good things, and we endeavor to satisfy 
ourselves with many small and trivial and exotic grati- 
fications ; and when these gratifications fail or pall, we 
find ourselves helpless and resourceless. The joy of 
sound sleep, the relish of a sufficient meal of plain and 
wholesome food, the desire to do a good day's work and 
the recompense when at night we are tired from the 
doing of it, the exhilaration of fresh air, the exercise of 
the natural powers, the mastery of a situation or a prob- 
lem — these and many others like them are fundamental 
satisfactions, beyond all pampering and all toys, and 
they are of the essence of goodness. I think we should 
teach all children how good are the common necessities, 
and how very good are the things that are made in the 
beginning. 

IT IS KINDLY 

We hear much about man being at the mercy of nature, 
and the literalist will contend that there can be no holy 



THE HOLY EARTH 21 

relation under such conditions. But so is man at the 
mercy of God. 

It is a blasphemous practice that speaks of the hos- 
tility of the earth, as if the earth were full of menaces 
and cataclysms. The old fear of nature, that peopled 
the earth and sky with imps and demons, and that gave 
a future state to Satan, yet possesses the minds of men, 
only that we may have ceased to personify and to demon- 
ize our fears, although we still persistently contrast 
what we call the evil and the good. Still do we attempt 
to propitiate and appease the adversaries. Still do 
Ave carry the ban of the early philosophy that assumed 
materials and "the flesh" to be evil, and that found a 
way of escape only in renunciation and asceticism. 

Nature cannot be antagonistic to man, seeing that 
man is a product of nature. We should find vast joy 
in the fellowship, something like the joy of Pan, We 
should feel the relief when we no longer apologize for 
the Creator because of the things that arc made. 

It is true that there are devastations of flood and fire 
and frost, scourge of disease, and appalling convulsions 
of earthquake and eruption. But man prospers ; and 
we know that the catastrophes are greftly fewer than 
the accepted bounties. We have no choice but to 
abide. 

No growth comes from hostility. It would undoubt- 
edly be a poor human race if all the pathway had been 
plain and easy. 

The contest with nature is wholesome, particularly 
when pursued in sympathy and for mastery. It is 
worthy a being created in God's image. The earth is 
perhaps a stem earth, but it is a kindly earth. 



22 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Most of our difficulty with the earth lies in the effort 
to do what perhaps ought not to be done. Not even 
all the land is fit to be farmed. A good part of agricul- 
ture is to learn how to adapt one's work to nature, to 
fit the crop-scheme to the climate and to the soil and 
the facilities. To live in right relation with his natural 
conditions is one of the first lessons that a wise farmer 
or any other wise man learns. We are at pains to stress 
the importance of conduct; very well: conduct toward 
the earth is an essential part of it. 

Nor need we be afraid of any fact that makes one 
fact more or less in the sum of contracts between the 
earth and the earth-bom children. All "higher criti- 
cism" adds to the faith rather than subtracts from it, 
and strengthens the bond between. The earth and its 
products are very real. 

Our outlook has been drawn very largely from the 
abstract. Not being yet prepared to understand the 
conditions of nature, man considered the earth to be 
inhospitable, and he looked to the supernatural for 
relief; and relief was heaven. Our pictures of heaven 
are of the opposites of daily experience — of release, 
of peace, of joy uninterrupted. The hunting-grounds 
are happy and the satisfaction has no end. The habit 
of thought has been set by this conception, and it colors 
our dealings with the human questions and to much 
extent it controls our practice. 

But we begin to understand that the best dealing 
with problems on earth is to found it on the facts of 
earth. 

This is the contribution of natural science, however 
abstract, to human welfare. Heaven is to be a real con- 



THE HOLY EARTH 23 

sequence of life on earth ; and we do not lessen the hope 
of heaven by increasing our affection for the earth, but 
rather do we strengthen it. Men now forget the old 
images of heaven, that they are mere sojourners and 
wanderers lingering for deliverance, pilgrims in a 
strange land. Waiting for this rescue, with posture and 
formula and phrase, we have overlooked the essential 
goodness and quickness of the earth and the immanence 
of God. 

This feeling that we are pilgrims in a vale of tears 
has been enhanced by the widespread belief in the sud- 
den ending of the world, by collision or some other 
impending disaster, and in the common apprehension of 
doom ; and lately by speculations as to the aridation 
and death of the planet, to which all of us have given 
more or less credence. But most of these notions are 
now considered to be fantastic, and we are increasingly 
confident that the earth is not growing old in a human 
sense, that its atmosphere and its water are held by 
the attraction of its mass, and that the sphere is at all 
events so permanent as to make little difference in our 
philosophy and no difference in our good behavior. 

I am again impressed with the first record in Genesis 
in which some mighty prophet-poet began his account 
with the creation of the physical universe. 

So do we forget the old-time importance given to 
mere personal salvation, which was permission to live 
in heaven, and we think more of our present situation, 
which is the situation of obligation and of service ; and 
he who loses his life shall save it. 

We begin to foresee the vast religion of a better social 
order. 



24. ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

THE EARTH IS HOLY 

Verily, then, the earth is divine, because man did not 
make it. We are here, part in the creation. We cannot 
escape. We are under obHgation to take part and to 
do our best, living with each other and with all the 
creatures. We may not know the full plan, but that 
does not alter the relation. When once we set our- 
selves to the pleasure of our dominion, reverently and 
hopefully, and assume all its responsibilities, we shall 
have a new hold on life. 

We shall put our dominion into the realm of morals. 
It is now in the realm of trade. This will be very per- 
sonal morals, but it will also be national and racial 
morals. More iniquity follows the improper and greedy 
division of the resources and privileges of the earth 
than any other form of sinfulness. 

If God created the earth, so is the earth hallowed ; and 
if it is hallowed, so must we deal w4th it devotedly and 
with care that we do not despoil it, and mindful of our 
relations to all beings that live on it. We are to con- 
sider it religiously: Put off thy shoes from off thy 
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. 

The sacredness to us of the earth is intrinsic and 
inherent. It lies in our necessary relationship and in 
the duty imposed upon us to have dominion, and to 
exercise ourselves even against our own interests. We 
may not waste that which is not ours. To live in sin- 
cere relations with the company of created things and 
with conscious regard for the support of all men now 
and yet to come, must be of the essence of righteous- 
ness. 

This is a larger and more original relation than the 



THE HOLY EARTH 25 

modem attitude of appreciation and admiration of 
nature. In the days of the patriarchs and prophets, 
nature and man shared in the condemnation and hke- 
wise in the redemption. The ground was cursed for 
Adam's sin. Paul wrote that the whole creation 
gtoaneth and travaileth in pain, and that it waiteth for 
the revealing. Isaiah proclaimed the redemption of the 
wilderness and the solitary place with the redemption of 
man, when they shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, 
and when the glowing sand shall become a pool and the 
thirsty ground springs of water. 

The usual objects have their moral significance. An 
oak tree is to us a moral object because it lives its life 
regularly and fulfils its destiny. In the wind and in the 
stars, in forest and by the shore, there is spiritual 
refreshment: And the spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters. 

I do not mean all this, for our modem world, in any 
vague or abstract way. If the earth is holy, then the 
things that grow out of the earth are also holy. They 
do not belong to man to do with them as he will. 
Dominion does not carry personal ownership. There 
are many generations of folk yet to come after us, who 
will have equal right with us to the products of the 
globe. It would seem that a divine obligation rests on 
every soul. Are we to make righteous use of the vast 
accumulation of knowledge of the planet? If so, we 
must have a new formulation. The partition of the 
earth among the millions who live on it is necessarily 
a question of morals ; and a society that is founded on 
an unmoral partition and use cannot itself be righteous 
and whole. 



Ill 

THE LOVE OF NATURE * 
Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer 

All human beings draw pleasure from Nature in an 
instinctive way. They enjo}' fresh air, sunshine, and 
open outlooks ; they prefer a blue sky to a gray one, and 
will confess that a green landscape is pleasanter to the 
eye than grimy pavements, even though for other 
reasons they may prefer to live in to^vn. 

Such likings as these prove no love of Nature ; they 
are almost purely physical ; sentiment has little more to 
do with them than with the pleasure of an animal bask- 
ing in the sun. But the majority of people, even among 
the uncultivated classes, have a deeper feeling for 
Nature than this, and appreciate something of its 
beauty. Stupid and brutalized indeed is the man or 
woman who does not notice a brilliant bed of flowers, or 
would not be impressed by the sight of a great moun- 
tain-chain. On Sundays our parks are crowded with 
very poor people who spread through every quiet walk 
and shadowy glade, and like nothing so well as to lie or 
saunter on the grass ; and although much of their pleas- 
ure is simply physical, anyone who has sympathetically 
mingled with them knows that part of it is of finer 
quality. The beauty of the landscape speaks to even 
the dullest eye, and appeals through it to the most 

* From "Art Out of Doors," by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. Copy- 
right, 1893, by Charles Scribner's Sons. By permission of the publishers. 

26 



THE LOVE OF NATURE 27 

sluggish imagination. The roughest cockney admires 
the beauty of the shores of the Hudson when he sees 
them on some summer excursion, and is impressed by the 
splendor of the sea when for the first time he stands on 
a shore where its waves are breaking. 

This instinctive admiration for the charms of the 
natural world is what many people understand by the 
love of Nature. But it is not, in any true sense, the love 
of Nature. It is merely a love for natural things which 
are beautiful, of course, but which are also unfamiliar 
and therefore striking. Let the dweller in tenement- 
houses inhabit a lodge in Central Park for a while, and 
he would probably seek his Sunday entertainment in a 
doAvn-town street. Let him work on a North River 
schooner, and he would quickly forget to notice the 
beauty of the shores. 

And this same attitude toward Nature may be 
observed in persons of much wider cultivation. To 
them also familiar natural things soon grow uninterest- 
ing. The artisans who crowd our Park on Sunday 
enjoy its beauty more than do most of the wealthier 
folk who drive there every day. It is curious to notice 
how few of these ever seem to look at anything but the 
people in the other carriages, and how seldom they turn 
from the fashionable East Drive into the much more 
beautiful West Drive. And it is still more curious to 
find that scores of them who have made pilgrimages in 
search of natural beauty from the Nile to the Sierras 
and from the St. Lawrence to Mexico, have never left 
their carriages to see what the pathways in their own 
park might reveal. The Ramble is as unknown to them 
as though it lay in China, and they exclaim in surprise 



28 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

if you tell them they might travel a thousand miles and 
see nothing prettier. 

People of this kind, I say, do not care about Nature ; 
at most they care for those conspicuous natural effects 
which they call scenery. Scenery is not the whole of 
natural beauty ; it is only one manifestation of it ; and a 
person who delights in a magnificent view but finds all 
flat regions hopelessly tiresome, or who feels the 
grandeur of a rocky coast but not the loveliness of a 
green-fringed, quiet shore, is in a rudimentary stage of 
development. His attitude is like that of one who should 
profess to love flowers but, while admiring a rose, should 
despise a forget-me-not. The true lover of Nature is 
he who gives interested attention to all natural effects 
and forms, and finds much beauty where the average eye 
finds none. 

Of course there are grades and degrees of natural 
beauty, and for each the true lover will have a cor- 
responding degree of admiration. He will not call a 
Belgian plain as beautiful as the valley of the Rhone, or 
declare that a nettle has the charm of a branch of apple- 
blossoms. But there are few plants which have no 
beauty of any kind ; and there are few earthly spots, 
where man's hand has not obliterated Nature's inten- 
tions, so devoid of attraction that the sensitive eye and 
mind cannot enjoy them keenly. 

Admiration, says a French writer on art, "is the 
active, jesthetic form of curiosity." And this means 
that he who really admires the works of God will be 
lovingly curious about the hyssop on the wall as well as 
about the cedar of Lebanon, and will see more to please 
him in a rough bit of pasture-land than the average 



THE LOVE OF NATURE 29 

person sees in a whole fertile valley. Who can love 
Nature better than the landscape-painter, spending his 
whole life in the effort to transfer her features to his 
canvas? But no one is less in need than the landscape- 
painter of what is called scenery. It is not he who 
greatly prefers the canon of the Yellowstone to the 
banks of the little river near at hand. When he is 
brought face to face with scenic grandeurs he appreci- 
ates them more keenly than anyone else, but he gladly 
comes back to his quiet plains, his placid pools, his little 
forest glades. Nor is it merely because these things are 
better fitted for painting than grander things. Any 
little corner of the world is enough for him, as a thing 
to enjoy no less than as a thing to paint. Delacroix 
was not a landscape-painter, so we cannot suspect him 
of professional bias ; and there has never been a painter 
whom we could more easily credit with an inborn love 
for striking and even spectacular kinds of beauty. But 
fine scenery was not essential to his enjoyment of 
Nature. "The poorest little alley," he wrote one day 
from a shabby suburb of Paris, "with its straight little 
leafless saplings, in a dull and flat horizon, can say as 
much to the imagination as the most bepraised of sites. 
This tiny cotyledon piercing the earth, this violet 
shedding its first whiff" of perfume, are enchanting. I 
love such things as much as the pines of Italy." 

This is the voice of the true lover of Nature, and like 
it was Corot's voice, constantly praising, not the 
grandeurs which he had seen on his travels, but the 
tender, gentle subtile beauties around his home at Ville 
d'Avray, and more than anything else, the humblest of 
them all — "my leaves and my little birds." If one is 



30 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

bom to love Nature as those men did and all true 
artists do, or if he ever learns the beneficent lesson, the 
quietest scenes will impress him, the most familiar will 
be ever new. The shadow of a blackberry-vine, as it 
trails over a gray rock, will give him as delightful an 
emotion as the sight of a great mountain ; and custom 
will not stale his pleasure, for it will be as infinitely 
varied, as perpetually renewed, as the leaves on the 
trees, the blades of grass in the fields, the tints in the 
sunset skies. 

People who run about, summer after summer, in 
search of new landscapes to admire, will often tell you 
that it is because they love Nature. But if they did 
they would be much less apt to run about ; they could 
exercise their passion within narrower limits, and they 
would be likely to content themselves within such limits 
because a particular love for particular beauties would 
result from long acquaintance with them. 

In Mrs. Robbin's "Rescue of an Old Old Place," she 
rightly says that one of the great benefits which spring 
from the possession of a bit of country soil is the 
development of the love of home, the suppression of that 
restless desire for change which makes of so many Amer- 
icans "possible tramps" instead of established citizens. 
But a genuine love for Nature may serve a person 
pretty well in place of the actual ownership of land; 
for in whatever corner of the country he may chance to 
live, he will see, understand, and appreciate every part 
and phase of its beauty, and thus, in a sense, feel him- 
self the owner of the whole region ; and the of tener he 
visits it, the stronger and more intimate will become his 
attachment, his feeling of possession. Of course he will 



THE LOVE OF NATURE 31 

not be without a keen desire to see as much of the big 
world as possible, and to learn how many kinds of 
beauty it can show. But this desire will not be the 
imperious need for "a change" which is felt by less 
fortunate souls ; and often it will be so much weaker 
than his wish to stay among the things which he knows 
best that year after year will pass and foreign lands, or 
even neighboring country-sides, will tempt in vain while 
he watches new clouds blow over his familiar hills, new 
flowers spring up in his familiar woods, and every long- 
loved shrub and tree assume new aspects with each 
season's growth and alterations. The changes which 
Nature brings every moment before his eyes will satiate 
his desire for novelty. 

This is the true secret of every kind of love: if a 
thing really appeals to us, the better we know it the 
more we care about it. The true lover of Nature loves 
her as he loves mankind. He has his favorite corners of 
the world as he has his friends, and does not constantly 
wish to exchange them for others, or perpetually con- 
trast their attractions with the attractions of others. 
If everyone admires them his joy in them is increased; 
but if he is almost alone in his appreciation, this fact is 
in itself the source of a special kind of pleasure and 
pride. He seeks for novelty and freshness in Nature 
as he likes to make acquaintance with interesting 
strangers, but comes back as gladly to the familiar 
scene as to the familiar face. The tree which he has 
watched as it grew from a sapling to fine maturity 
delights him even more than a finer tree about which no 
memories or hopes are clustered, for even if he has not 
planted and watered it himself, even if it grows in the 



32 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTUBE 

neighboring forest instead of his own field, he loves it 
with a personal, proprietary affection. When he drives 
through a beautiful new country his eyes are perpetu- 
ally charmed; but when he drives through the roads 
around his home his heart is touched and his imagina- 
tion is stirred by the beauty of past years as well as by 
the beauty of to-day, and by the hope that next year's 
beauty also may belong to him. Each tree is a friend, 
each bush has a special message for his special ear, 
each flower is greeted as the child of other flowers which 
he knew last summer in the same corner of the roadside. 
He not only admires what he sees — he is interested by 
everything he sees in a sense that is impossible where 
things are beheld for the first time. And true love, if it 
means admiration, means interest also, whether inani- 
mate things or human beings are in question. 

Therefore, one who truly loves Nature does not need 
what are commonly called fine views ; he needs no great 
ranges of mountains, picturesque stretches of rocky 
coast, or outlooks over wide expanses of valley, hill, and 
river. Every view not seriously marred by some incon- 
gruous work of man has its charm for his eyes. And 
he recognizes, moreover, that a very fine view must often 
be bought at the expense of other beauties. If, for 
instance, there are mountains around him, he cannot 
have that far, low horizon-line which, stretching its 
mighty curve at a seemingly immeasurable distance, 
gives an unequalled sense of space, freedom, and infinity. 
"I have never seen the sky before," a painter once ex- 
claimed who had passed his life in hilly regions and now 
for the first time stood in the flat, quiet country near 
Cape Cod; "I did not know that it was so vast, or so 



THE LOVE OF NATURE 33 

near, or so round, or that there were so many stars, or 
that a sight of them all could be so magnificent. I never 
before watched the moon come up from below the earth 
instead of merely from behind the hills ; and I never saw 
the w'hole of a sunset until I came here." And he seemed 
to think that the panorama of the morning and evening 
and midnight heavens was as admirable as any terres- 
trial panorama which could be unrolled. 

Again, in our crude and often maltreated land, 
grandeur in the distance often means a forlorn ragged- 
ness in the foregrounds, and a sensitive eye thinks the 
foreground of a picture as important as its background. 
Where forests have ruthlessly been cut away, and where 
there is not a rich soil to encourage neat and careful 
methods of cultivation, primeval beauty has largely 
vanished and the beauty of civilization has not taken its 
place. The true lover of Nature will feel this painfully, 
and all the magnificence of the mountains beyond may 
not compensate him for the lack of that harmonious 
repose in general effect which comes when all parts of a 
picture are in keeping. 

I do not say that the true lover of Nature cares 
nothing for grand scenery — only that he does not 
actually need it. Great things impress him, but small 
ones content him, and he gathers pleasure from the 
roadside grass as well as from the giant oak or the sky- 
line of a rugged mountain-range. There is a beauty of 
the lily and a beauty of the pine, a beauty of the moun- 
tain and a beauty of the plain, a beauty of wide out- 
looks, of stately, high-walled amphitheaters, and of 
gentle, sequestered corners. One kind necessarily ex- 
cludes the other kinds ; but that does not matter if each 



34 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTUHE 

arrests the eye, interests the mind, and appeals to the 
imagination and the heart. 

Everyone realizes that more kinds of art appeal to 
the connoisseur than to the ordinary oibserver, and tha^. 
he does not exalt showy, spectacular kinds above all 
others. All the greatest artists in the world did not 
paint palace-ceilings or big altar-pictures ; some of the 
world's most famous masterpieces measure only a couple 
of spans and do not show a single note of vivid color. 
And so it is with Nature and her masterpieces. The 
finest composition wrought with mountain peaks and 
deep ravines is not more beautiful or wonderful than one 
which can be wrought with a gray boulder, a pine-tree, 
and a carpet of moss or fern ; the most splendid pano- 
ramic background is not more enchanting than may be a 
foreground of flowery meadow, with a middle distance of 
woodland, and no background at all except the luminous 
sky. 

Of course some people are born with a deep and true 
love for Nature, but even in them I think this love does 
not show itself very early in life. In the majority of 
cases it seems to have been gradually developed rather 
than spontaneously felt. And, while no one not born 
with a poet's soul can ever learn to feel Nature's charms 
as a Oorot or a Wordsworth did, anyone -can learn to see 
them pretty clearly unless his mind is hopelessly 
sluggish, desperately prosaic. 

How can such knowledge be acquired? One way, as I 
have said in speaking of trees, is to study the fine land- 
scape-pictures. Another is the landscape-painter's own 
way. The practice of painting, even in the most un- 
trained, amateurish fashion, may be an excellent help 



THE LOVE OF NATURE 35 

toward the development of a love for Nature. If an 
intelligent young girl would spend an hour a day, 
during a single summer, faithfully trying to set down in 
paint what she sees in Nature — ^mow a flower or a tree, 
now a bit of sunset-sky, a comer of a hedge-row, or a 
little stretch of river-bank — she would find at the end 
of the season that she had gained new eyes. She would 
see a thousand things she had never seen before, find 
beauty in many that before had seemed ugly, and realize 
the difference between merely "liking" Nature and truly 
appreciating it. It would not matter if all her studies 
were failures and were torn up in disgust as fast as they 
were finished. She would have attained a great end, 
achieved a real success ; for she would have enlarged her 
own powers of enjoyment to the sweetening and digni- 
fying of all the rest of her life. Much amateur sketch- 
ing is done in this country every summer, but I fear it is 
not often done in this spirit. The aim is to produce 
pretty pictures, not to cultivate the painter's own 
intelligence. And while the aim generally remains un- 
attained, intelligence is scarcely increased; for, as the 
prettiness of the sketch has been the ruling motive, a 
subject has most often been chosen because It was easy 
to do, not because it was particularly interesting in 
itself, and it has been superficially looked at, not 
lovingly studied. 



IV 
CIVIC ART * 

Frank A. Waugh 

Big issues are stirring in the rural districts of Amer- 
ica. The farming communities, and the small towns 
dependent on them, have reached a stage of genuine and 
confident prosperity. It is no longer a question with 
them whether they can live through the winter and pay 
the interest on the mortgage. The main problem is not 
now how to make more money, but how to live more com- 
fortably. The way the farmers spend money for auto- 
mobiles proves this. 

Better homes and better home surroundings are the 
matters of prime concern. Better schools, better play- 
grounds, better churches, better libraries, better roads, 
are wanted — better cemeteries, even. In the main, these 
are community problems, to be solved'by the cooperative 
action of the whole neighborhood. Cooperation has 
been talked of as the coming remedy for all the farmer's 
difficulties ; but the word has been given too narrow a 
meaning and application. The neighborhood can 
accomplish more by cooperating to own a grange hall, 
or the boys can do better cooperating to maintain a 
baseball league, than the farmers can cooperating to 
buy fertilizer twenty-five cents under market price. And 
the best place to learn how to cooperate is in the care of 

* From "Rural Improvement," by permission of the author and of tha 

publishers, the Orange Judd Company. 

36 



CIVIC ART 37 

public property, such as parks, commons, playgrounds, 
schools, and roads which we own in common. 

The country needs to be improved. Some of us who 
live in the country and love it hate to admit this. But 
the steady stream of young folks — and some older ones 
— moving toward the city shows that most people still 
find the city more attractive than the country. Look 
what has been done for the city ! Fine schools, theaters, 
picture shows, playgrounds, parks, music, boulevards — 
play, beauty, and entertainment. The simple fact is 
that the country must do something to offset these 
attractions or the exodus of live young men and women 
will go on forever. 

Better farming — bigger crops and -better prices — ^will 
do something. Better houses and household -equipment 
will do more. Better neighborhood equipment for 
recreation and wholesome social intercourse will do still 
more. There must be improvement all along the line. 
This is the Rural Improvement which I would preach. 

At the same time I would point out that any improve- 
ment of this sort can best begin on its physical side. 
The concrete problems of physical property are easier 
to grasp; and if it is true, as it partly is, that a man 
must have a sound body in order to support a vigorous 
mind and a healthy conscience, it is more truly true that 
a community must be clean and orderly physically in 
order to be clean and orderly socially and morally. One 
of the strongest elements in general agricultural im- 
provement is to be found in the contribution offered by 
civic art — the art which builds a sound physical frame 
for the support of a healthy community life. 

Art in general has no very high reputation in Amer- 



38 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

ica. It is thought to be not sufficiently "practical." 
Yet at present this mistaken view is giving way to a 
better understanding. In the first place people are 
beginning to see that anything is none the less useful 
for being beautiful. A beautiful bridge will carry just 
as big a load as an ugly one. A beautiful and dignified 
house is just as comfortable as a wretched plain one. A 
well-proportioned silo will keep the silage just as sweet 
as an ugly unpainted one with the top off. Beauty does 
not interfere with utility, nor utility with beauty. The 
two are sisters. They should walk hand in hand. Noth- 
ing can be truly beautiful unless it is perfectly suited to 
its proper use; and, conversely, nothing can perfectly 
serve its highest uses imless it is beautiful. 

Thus we are awakening in this country (to put the 
whole meaning into one phrase) to tJie necessity of 
having things done right. A barn is not strictly right 
until it serves its native purposes to the fullest possible 
measure — and when this full and high and overflowing 
stage of utility is reached, the barn must be also 
beautiful. 

Now in public affairs (which we may call also civic 
affairs or community affairs) we reach this conclusion a 
trifle later. We sooner see that our own houses and 
silos must be right than we realize that the public school- 
houses, roads, and cemeteries come under the same higli 
necessity. But this second stage has been fully reached 
in many American communities, and the need is keenly 
felt of realizing in all public works the highest utilrty 
combined with the utmost beauty. And this conclusion 
may almost be adopted as the definition of art — to 
realize the maximum of utility combined with the maxi- 



CIVIC ART 39 

nmm of beauty. When thus rightly understood, art 
becomes an indispensa'ble factor in daily life — whether 
private or public life — and not a mere superfluity fit for 
the attention only of dudes, decadents, and highbrows. 

Civic art, therefore, may be defined as the practice of 
doing things right with reference to all public works — 
or to state it more explicitly, it is the constant endeavor 
to secure in all public works the maximum of utility 
combined with the maximum of beauty. 

Civic art thus becomes a branch of landscape archi- 
tecture, which endeavors to secure for all the outdoor 
needs of humanity the greatest convenience plus the 
utmost order and beauty. The principles of civic art, 
then, are the same as those of landscape architecture, 
and this great art must be chiefly appealed to to supply 
both the principles and the detailed practices for appli- 
cation in the newer branch of civic art. 

It would lead us too far afield from our present 
studies should we attempt here to elucidate all the basic 
principles of landscape architecture and to apply them 
to the subject in hand. We may only say that here the 
great principles of order, which are the principles of 
design, rule supreme. To have everything done in per- 
fect order — to have everything kept in perfect order — = 
this is the keynote of civic art. 

Civic art strives to secure this perfect good order — ■ 
this maximum of utility plus a maximum of beauty — in 
the things which belong to the community. These public 
possessions are streets, commons, parks, playgrounds, 
school buildings, churches, libraries, town halls, court 
houses, and scenery, with various other important items. 
Unfortunately the sense, and even the knowledge, of 



40 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

common public ownership in such things is still very 
weak in America. For too many years we have laid 
every stress on the private ownership of our awn 
individual property. All laws have been made to protect 
individuals in this personal right. All preaching has 
aimed to quicken conscience with reference to the rights 
of others. And so we have almost forgotten that most 
of the greatest gifts in the world belong to nobody — 
that is, to everybody — that is, to us all. The air and 
the blue sky still belong to us anyway. The sweet water 
that falls from heaven belongs to us, too, except that 
many of us have chosen to live in cities and to pay some- 
one to bring us our share of it. Then the schools are 
not mine nor 3'ours, but ours ; and the roads belong to 
no man, though the automobile hog may act as though 
they did ; and the churches are the property of all, 
though Protestant sectarianism has indirectly incul- 
cated the belief that one or two men own each church ; 
and the cemeteries are public property where we are all 
at last "free and equal" in spite of the Declaration of 
Independence. 

And so all of us, acting together, strive to secure the 
best results obtainable in the development of our 
common property, to secure the very highest utility, to 
enjoy the greatest possible beauty, and to maintain 
everything in the best possible order. This is civic art. 

In the cities, civic art has been developed first. There 
are sufficient reasons for that fact. But the country, 
equally with the cit}', has public property, and should 
have more, and this property needs to be developed to 
its highest utility and to be equipped with every avail- 
able beauty. Unfortunately again the sense of common 



CIVIC ART 41 

ownership is weaker in the country than in the city, and 
harder to arouse. Practical cooperation is harder to 
secure. Greater efforts are necessary, therefore, to get 
community improvements under way in the country. 

Another difficulty lies in the fact that communities 
have not such definite geographic limits in the rural 
districts as in the cities. An incoi-porated city has very 
precise boundaries. Any individual family resides in 
one city and not in two. (Families with residences in 
New York, Newport, Palm Beach, and Reno do not 
count for anything in any connection.) In the coun- 
try, however, every farm is the center of a neighborhood. 
These neighborhoods overlap and overlap again, never 
coming to an end except at the ocean or the impassable 
mountain. Practically this is the very difficult situa- 
tion throughout the Central and Westeni states. In the 
New England states the town unit is so well developed 
politically that it makes a very convenient basis for all 
kinds of community action. A political club, a farmers' 
club, or a civic improvement society may easily be or- 
ganized for any given town. Everyone in the town will 
accept his natural allegiance with such a society and 
work with it to the best of his ability. 

In the Central and Western states the county is the 
political unit. But the county is too big for the most 
effective work in civic betterment. Certain enterprises, 
to be sure, can be undertaken on a county-wide scale, 
and should then be under the direction of county socie- 
ties. In those states where county patriotism has sub- 
stantial growth ever} effort should be made to put it to 
good use. County improvement societies may be formed, 
on whose programs would appear such projects as (a) 



42 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

better county roads, (b) better county buildings, (c) 
county high schools and agricultural schools^ (d) scenic 
and historic reservations. 

But smaller units of organization must be found, even 
in most enterprising counties. Village improvement 
societies can take care of the small towns, and civic 
clubs or boards of trade or women's clubs of the larger 
ones. The country districts must not be forgotten, but 
should be divided up amongst the granges and amongst 
the local farmers' clubs (most of which are still to be 
organized). 

We have spoken of the county unit, the town unit, the 
village unit, and the very indefinite country-neighbor- 
hood unit. Before dropping this subject we must have 
a look at the state unit. As a matter of fact there are 
many civic enterprises of state-wide scope, such as state 
roads, state parks, etc. Let it be distinctly understood 
that some of the finest civic accomplishments of the last 
decade have been in this field, and we may reasonably 
hope for more in the next decade. We have a sort of 
reason for this in the significant fact that the civic 
feeling is stronger mthin state boundaries than any- 
where else in America. A Kansan is more proud of 
Kansas than of all the other stars on the flag; and a 
Mississippian will do more for his state than for any 
other geographical unit, big or little, in the universe; 
and a New Yorker always thinks that North America 
revolves round the Empire State. Inasm.uch as patri- 
otism and civic pride are pretty much one and the 
same thing, and as this civic pride is the ultimate foun- 
dation of all civic improvement, we may properly expect 
best results where local patriotism is strongest, and may 



CIVIC ART 43 

thus hope to accomplish some of the biggest and best 
things through state-wide movements. 

The time is now fully ripe for the organization of 
state campaigns in all states where a fair stage of 
social and economic development (i.e., a reasonably well 
organized civilization) has been attained. Such enter- 
prises promise to be most effective if initiated and 
directed by the state agricultural college. A strong, 
aggressive, modern agi'icultural college can easily put 
into the field a small corps of experts who will assist 
the local communities in all the undertakings of civic 
betterment. These experts, carrying this civic better- 
ment propaganda throughout the state, would deal 
directly with such problems as these: (a) Good roads, 
location, construction, and maintenance, (b) roadside 
and street planting, and care of roadside trees, (c) 
acquisition, planning, and management of public reser- 
vations, parks, picnic grounds, commons, and play- 
grounds, (d) location and design of school grounds, 
especially country schools and those providing school 
gardens, experimental grounds, etc., (e) location and 
design and care of public cemeteries, (f) care of country 
churches and church grounds, (g) location and design 
of all public buildings, more especially those outside of 
cities, (h) design and care of farm yards and village 
yards, (i) design, service, and sanitation of farm build- 
ings. In every one of these lines improvement is pos- 
sible and desirable. Improvement in greater or less 
degree can be secured by putting before the people, 
systematically and urgently, the best modern ideas on 
these several subjects. No better line of work for rural 
betterment can possibly be undertaken by the exten- 



44 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

sion services now organized in many agricultural col- 
leges, or by any other organizations having in view the 
improvement of country life conditions. 

All these civic improvement enterprises always look 
very formidable to the inexperienced person. Talk 
about town planning, country planning, or a general 
state plan sounds altogether futile in such ears. What 
can be done after all to change the plan of a town 
already in existence? HoAvever, the works of civic 
improvement are, in fact, much easier to accomplish 
than the public ever believes. For the greatest part 
civic art undertakes only to do in the right way instead 
of in the wrong way things which have to he done one 
way or the other. Now, most people, even town and 
county officials, would rather do things right than to 
do them wrong. As the right way is usually the 
cheapest way, especially in the long run, there is in 
this fact another strong preference for the best things, 
whenever the public can be helped to see what plans 
are actually cheapest and best. The important point 
is to see that the public has a fair chance to know what 
is best. In an enormous number of cases public ques- 
tions are decided without this knowledge. 

In an experience in civic work covering several years 
I have often been surprised at the readiness, even avid- 
ity, with which apparently radical suggestions are 
sometimes accepted. I once asked an audience in a 
country town if they owned any public picnic ground. 
No, they said. Had they any places in town attrac- 
tive enough for such uses? Oh yes, plenty of them! 
And then, after the lecture, and before we left the room, 
three men said they would personally give the land to 



CIVIC ART 45 

the town. Dozens of similar instances could be related 
illustrating the ease with which the most substantial 
improvements are speedily and easily realized when the 
right idea is favorably presented. 

In other cases more time is needed. Indeed, the time 
element is of supreme importance in most projects for 
public works. It requires time for any new idea to 
"soak in." When a new improvement is proposed it 
should be put fairly, full}^ and clearly before the public, 
and kept there. Let it be a plan for a new road or a 
ball field, if a well-studied plan can be widely circulated 
and properly explained, and then if the drawings and 
data can be put up in plain view in the post office or 
other public place, and kept there, perhaps for several 
years, the work will eventually be carried out. It will 
almost do itself. The people become accustomed to 
the idea, they accept it as a probable result, and when 
the proper moment arrives they will assist in its final 
realization. Patience, prudence, and preparation are 
the watchwords of civic improvement. 

One more point of fundamental importance must be 
borne in mind. Although civic art deals only with the 
physical features of the community equipment (that 
is, with public property of one sort or another), these 
physical elements do not exist by themselves and cer- 
tainly not for themselves. Industrial, social, educa- 
tional, religious, and other factors are present and 
powerful in the community life, and it is, indeed, for 
these things that the physical equipment is used. Now 
civic art in any form — village improvement, rural 
improvement, or state improvement campaign — can- 
not go very far by itself. Improvement of the streets 



46 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

depends partly on improvement of local politics, 
and this in turn on "better schools, and all together 
on better churches and a growing spirit of honesty 
and public service. Furthermore, agricultural and 
industrial conditions must be improved in order that 
farms and factories may yield larger returns for 
the support of churches, schools, playgrounds, roads, 
and even cemeteries. All community advancement must 
be gained by coordinated advance all along the line. 
Improvement of roads and public grounds must be ac- 
companied by improvement in schools, by reform in 
politics, and by genuine religious revivals. In like 
manner a wild religious upheaval without better streets 
is a waste of breath, or political reform without better 
schools is a delusion, or more scientific agriculture with- 
out more picnics and better churches and happier 
households is only vanity and vexation of spirit. 

The great advantages of civic art are two: First, 
it deals with concrete problems and materials : that is, 
with property; and humanity, especially American 
humanity, has a most ineradicable belief in property. 
Civic art, therefore, supplies the basis on which com- 
munities most quickly rally, and on which a genuine 
cooperation can be most easily and effectively estab- 
lished. Secondly, civic improvement thereby becomes 
the indispensable training school for all higher forms 
of neighborly cooperation, such as deal with political, 
educational, and religious reforms. In a double sense 
civic art is the unique foundation on which to build 
every kind of civic improvement. 



V 

THE ART OF GARDENING* 

Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer 

The Arts of Design are usually named as three: 
architecture, sculpture, and painting. It is the popular 
belief that a man who practises one of these is an artist, 
and that other men who work with forms and colors 
are at the best but artisans. Yet there is a fourth Art 
of Design which well deserves to rank with them, for 
it demands quite as much in the way of esthetic feeling, 
creative power, and executive skill. This is the art 
which creates beautiful compositions upon the surface 
of the ground. 

The mere statement of its purpose should show that 
it is truly an art. The effort to produce organic beauty 
is what makes a man an artist ; neither the production 
of a merely useful organism nor of a beautiful isolated 
detail can suffice ; he must compose a beautiful whole 
with a number of related parts. Therefore, while he 
who raises useful crops is an agriculturalist, and he who 
grows plants for their individual charms is a horticul- 
turalist, and he who constructs solid roads is an engi- 
neer, the man who uses ground and plants, roads and 
paths, and water and accessory buildings, with an eye 
to organic beauty of effect, is — or ought to be — an 
artist. 

* From "Art Out of Doors," by Mrs. Schuyler Van. Rensselaer. Copy- 
right, 1893, by Charles Scribner's Sons. By permission, of the publishers. 

47 



48 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

All the Arts of Design are thus akin in general char- 
acter and purpose. But they differ from each other in 
many ways, and in studying the peculiarities of garden- 
ing art we find some reasons why its affinity with its 
sisters is so commonly ignored. 

One difference is that it uses the same materials as 
Nature herself. In what is called the "naturalistic" 
style of gardening it uses them to produce many effects 
which, under favoring conditions. Nature might have 
produced without man's aid. Then, the better the 
result, the less likely it is to be recognized as an arti- 
ficial, an artistic, result ; the more perfectly the artist 
attains his end, the more likely we are to forget that he 
has been at work. 

I dare say that there are many persons who do not 
know that a large portion of Central Park was created 
by Mr. Olmsted and his associates, in almost as literal 
a sense as any painter ever created a pictured land- 
scape; who do not remember the dismal, barren, tree- 
less, half-rocky, and half-swampy waste which, less 
than forty years ago, occupied all the tracts below 
the reservoir ; who fancy that Nature made them beau- 
tiful with meadows, ponds, trees, and shrubs, with wood- 
land passages, and verdurous cliffs and hollows ; who 
think that all man has done has been to lay out the 
roads and paths, and build the terraces, bridges, and 
shelters. If they will read any contemporary descrip- 
tion of the quondam aspect of these tracts, now so 
natural-looking in their beauty, and will then study 
the Park to-day and consider what difficulties must 
have attended the process which made it lovely to the 
eyes and convenient for the feet and wheels of crowd- 



THE ART OF GARDENING 49 

ing thousands, they may gain some idea of whait land- 
scape-gardening means ; they may understand why we 
who have studied it even from the outside rank it quite 
as high as any other art. 

In naturalistic work such as this, I say, we may care- 
lessly admire the result while forgetting that an artist 
wrought it. But, on the other hand, when an artist 
has essayed the formal, "architectural" style of garden- 
ing, and has disposed Nature's materials in frankly non- 
natural ways, his activity will be recognized, but, in 
our country at least, few will stop to consider whether 
it has been artistic or not. A more or less intelligent 
love for natural beauty is very common with us while 
good judgment in art is very rare. Therefore — es- 
pecially as we are unaccustomed to thinking of art out- 
of-doors at all — we do not understand that in certain 
situations a formal design may be the best. Seeing that 
it is not Nature's work, or like Nature's work, we 
condemn it as a wilful misuse of good natural material. 
We recognize man's product, but we do not appreciate 
any beauty that it may possess. 

Again, gardening-art differs from all others in the 
unstable character of its results. When surfaces are 
modelled and plants arranged. Nature and the artist 
must still work a long time together before the true 
picture appears; and when once it has revealed itself, 
day-to-day attention will be forever needed to preserve 
it from the altering effects of time. It is easy to 
imagine, therefore, how often neglect or interference 
must work havoc with the best intentions, how often 
the passage of years must destroy or travesty the best 
results. 



50 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Still another thing which prevents popular recog- 
nition of this art is our lack of clearly understood 
terms with which to speak ahout it. "Gardens" once 
meant pleasure-grounds of every kind, and "gardener" 
then had an adequately artistic sound. But as the 
meaning of the first term was gradually specialized, 
so the other gradually came to denote a mere grower 
of plants. "Landscape-gardener" was a title invented 
by the artists of the eighteenth century to mark the new 
tendency which they represented — the search for 
"natural" as opposed to "formal" beauty ; and it seemed 
to them to need an apology as savoring, perhaps, of 
grandiloquence or conceit. But as taste declined in 
England, this title was assumed by men who had not the 
slightest right, judged either by their aims or by their 
results, to be considered artists ; and to-day it is fallen 
into such disrepute that it is often replaced by "land- 
scape-architect." French usage supports this term, 
and it is in many respects a good one. But its derivative, 
"landscape-architecture," is unsatisfactory ; and so, on 
the other hand, is "landscape-artist," although "land- 
scape-art" is a good general term. Perhaps the best we 
can do is to keep to "landscape-gardener," trying to 
remember that it ought always to mean an artist and 
an artist only, but that this artist is not always called 
upon to design landscapes, either large or small, or 
even naturalistic gardens. 

'The landscape-gardener, when his title is most ap- 
propriate, stands with the sculptor and the painter, 
in contrast to the architect, in that he takes his inspira- 
tion directly from Nature, working after the schemes 
and from the models which she supplies. But in some 



THE ART OF GARDENING 51 

respects he stands quite alone. The painter works with 
actual colors, but with mere illusions of form, and the 
sculptor creates forms but uses colors, if at all in con- 
ventional and subordinate ways ; but the landscape- 
gardener depends upon color and form in equal measure, 
and can never dispense with the one or the other. Then 
again, he takes from Nature not only his models but his 
materials and methods. His colors are those of her own 
palette, his clays and marbles are her rocks and soils, 
and his technical processes arc the same that she em- 
ploys. He does not show her possibilities of beauty as 
in a mirror of his own inventing. He helps her in her 
actual efforts to realize them — he works in and for and 
with her. 

This fact limits and hampers him in certain ways ; 
but, under fortunate conditions, it allows him to adiieve 
what no other artist can — ^perfection. "The sculptor 
or the painter," writes a recent critic, "observes defects 
in the single model ; he notices in many models scattered 

excellences To correct those defects, to 

re-unite those excellences, becomes his aim. He cannot 
rival Nature by producing anything exactly like her 
work, but he can create something which shall show 
what Nature strives after. 

" The mind of man comprehends her effort 

and though the skill of man cannot compete with her 
in the production of particulars, man is able by art to 
anticipate her desires and to exhibit an image of what 
she was intending." But the landscape-gardener is 
Nature's rival, does create things like her own, can 
compete with her in perfect workmanship, for she her- 
self works with him while he is re-uniting: her scattered 



52 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

excellences and obliterating her defects. What he can- 
not do she does for him, from the building of mountains 
and the spreading of skies to the perfecting of those 
"particulars" which turn the keenest chisel and blunt 
the subtilest brush — to the curling of a fern-frond and 
the veining of a rose. Of course she will not everywhere 
do everything. If part of her work is in completing 
man's, part is in preparing for it, and he must respect 
the canvas and frame which she furnishes for his 
picture, the general scheme which she prescribes. He 
cannot ask her to build him mountains in a plain, to 
change a hill-side rivulet to a river, or to make tropical 
trees grow under northern skies. But he can always 
persuade her to produce beauty of some sort, if he is 
wise enough to know for what sort he should ask. 

This, of course, is true only in a theoretic sense. 
Theoretically, there is not a spot on earth an artist 
could not beautify. But some spots would demand a 
life of antediluvian length, and dollars as plentiful as 
the sands by the sea. Practically, the landscape- 
gardener, perhaps more than any other artist, is limited 
by questions of time and money. And his partnership 
with Nature limits him as regards not only the sort but 
the degree of beauty which he can achieve. Nature may 
suggest the same sort in two places, but if she prepares 
lavishly for it in the one spot and parsimoniously in the 
other, the best skill in the world may not be able to 
succeed as well here as there. Yet, I say, the landscape- 
gardener can always count upon that perfection in 
details which painter and sculptor never get ; and his 
general effects as well as his details have the great ad- 
vantage of being alive. A great advantage indeed, for 



THE ART OF GARDENING 53 

it means many beautiful results in every piece of work 
instead of merely one, and perpetual variation in each 
of the many. His aim is, in general, the same as that of 
the landscape-painter, who knows that the most potent 
factors in Nature's beauty are light and atmosphere. 
No things in the world, not even the color and texture 
of the human skin, are so difficult to simulate, so impos- 
sible to imitate in paint as these. But to the landscape- 
gardener's pictures Naturefreely supplies them, and not 
only in the one phase for which a painter strives, but in 
a thousand, changing them with each day of the year 
and each hour of the day. And with the passing days 
and seasons she changes also his terrestrial effects, so 
that no part of his work is twice the same, although, 
if rightly wroug'ht, it is always beautiful. 

But does not this partnership with Nature deprive 
the artist of the chance for self-expression? Art, 
after all, is not imitation but interpretation; ajid 
interpretation implies the exercise of choice and inven- 
tiveness, the revelation of personal thought. No artist 
can copy Nature, and if he could his work would not 'be 
worth while. Its only value would be historical, not 
artistic ; it would be prized only as the permanent 
record of a perishable fact. To make his result wortli 
while as art, he must put into it a portion of himself. 

If the landscape-gardener were indeed denied the 
chance to do this he could not be more than a skilful 
artisan. But he is not denied it. In fact, he cannot 
escape if he would from the necessity for self-expression. 
It is not truer to say of him than of the painter or 
the sculptor that he copies Nature. Although they 
work merely with their eyes upon Nature, and he works 



54 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

in and with her, his aim is the same as theirs — to reunite 
her scattered excellences. Theoretically he could copy 
her in a very exact sense of the word ; but practically 
he can copy little more than her minor details and her 
exquisite finish of execution. Composition of one sort 
or another is the chief thing in art, and the landscape- 
gardener's compositions must he his own. Through 
them he must express his own ideals. If he is Nature's 
pupil he is also her master. 

"Nature," writes Aristotle, "has the will but not the 
power to realize perfection." Turn the phrase the 
other way and it is quite as true : she has the power but 
not the will. In either reading it means that man can 
aid and supplement her work. The landscape-gardener 
can hend her will in many ways to his own, although he 
must have learned from her how to do it. He cannot 
achieve things to which her power is unequal, but he 
can liberate, assist, and direct that power. He could 
even remove her mountains if the result were worth the 
effort ; and he can blot them out of his landscape by the 
simplest of devices — by planting a clump of trees and 
shrubs which she will grow for him as cheerfully as 
though she herself had sown their seeds. He cannot 
make great rivers ; but he can make lakes from rivulets 
and cause water to dominate in a view which Nature 
has spread with green grass. He can even teach her 
to create exquisite details scarcely hinted at in her 
unassisted products. All "florists' roses," for example, 
are not beautiful ; but there are many in which Nature 
herself may grudge man's skill its major share. In short, 
the landscape-gardener's task is to produce beautiful 
pictures. Nature supplies him w^ith his materials, arl- 



THE ART OF GARDENING 55 

ways giving him vitality, light, atmosphere, color, and 
details, and often lovelj^ or imposing forms in the con- 
formation of the soil ; and she will see to the thorough 
finishing of his design. But the design is the main thing, 
and the design must be of his oAvn conceiving. 

It is easy to sec that this is true when formal, 
"architectural" garden-designing is in question. But 
it is just as true of naturalistic landscape-work. 
Nature seldom shows a large composition which an 
artist would wish to reproduce; and if by chance she 
does, it is impossible for him to reproduce it. Practical 
difficulties hedge him narrowly in, and appropriateness 
controls his efforts even more imperiously than those of 
other artists. His aim is never purely ideal ; he can 
never think of beauty or even of fitness, in the abstract. 
He may practise with abstract problems on paper, but 
with each piece of his actual work Nature says to him : 
"Here in this spot I have drawn a rough outline which 
it is for you to make into a picture. In many other 
spots I have shown you scattered beauties of a thousand 
kinds. It is for you to decide which you can bring into 
your work, and to discover how they may be fused into 
a whole which shall look as beautiful, as right, as though 
I had created it myself." Appropriateness must be the 
touchstone for particular features as for general effects. 
The artist's memory may bo stored with endless beau- 
ties — ^ivith innumerable "bits" of composition and good 
ideas for foregrounds, middle distances, and back- 
grounds, and with exhaustless materials in the way of 
trees and shrubs and flowers. But not one of these can 
be used until he has considered whether it will be 
theoretically appropriate in this part of the world, in 



56 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

a scheme of this special sort, and whether, if it is, prac- 
tical considerations will permit its use. 

Indeed, the true process for landscape-work is more 
imaginative than this. The true artist will not go about 
with a store of ready-made features and effects in his 
mind, and strive to fit some of them into the task of the 
moment as best he may. He will conceive his general 
idea in deference to the local commands of Nature ; 
develop his general scheme as artistic fitness counsels ; 
discover the special features which are needed to com- 
plete it (considering which Nature will permit among 
those he might desire) ; and then, half unconsciously 
perhaps, search for memories of natural results which 
may teach him how to achieve his own. In educating 
himself he will have tried less to remember definitely 
this and that particular natural result than to under- 
stand how Nature goes to work to produce beautiful 
results. He will have tried to permeate himself with her 
spirit, to comprehend her aims, to learn what she means 
by variety in unity, by effective simplicity, by harmo- 
nious contrasts, by fitness of feature and detail, by 
beauty of line and color, by distinctness of expression 
— in a word, by composition. He will have tried to 
train his memory for general rather than for particular 
truths, and chiefly to purify his taste and stimulate his 
imagination ; for he will have known that whOe, in some 
ways, he is Nature's favorite pupil, in others sihe treats 
him more parsimoniously than the rest. She gives him 
a superabundance of models by the study of which he 
may make himself an artist ; but when, as an artist, he 
is actually at work, she will never give him one pattern 
which, part by part, can guide his efforts. When we 



THE ART OF GARDENING 57 

read of painters, we marvel most, not at the modem 
"realist" working inch by inch from the living form, but 
at Michael Angelo on his lonely scaffold, filling" his ceil- 
ing with forms more powerful and superb than Nature's 
— no guides at hand but his memory of the very 
different forms he had studied from life, and his own 
creative thought. Yet something like this is what the 
landscape-gardener must do every time he starts a piece 
of work. Certainly not each of his tasks is as difficult 
as a Sistine ceiling, but each, whether small or great, 
must be approached from an imaginative standpoint. 

There is another point to be noted. When we speak 
of the artist as taught and inspired by "natural" scenes, 
we are apt to mean all those which have not been modi- 
fied by the conscious action of art. We recognize a 
park-landscape as non-natural ; but those rural land- 
scapes in cultivated countries from which the designer 
of a park draws his best lessons are also non-natural. 
"If, in the idea of a natural state," says an old English 
writer, "we included ground and wood and water, no 
spot in this island can be said to be in a state of Nature. 

Wherever cultivation has set its foot — where- 

ever the plough and spade have laid fallow the soil — 
Nature is become extinct." 

Extinct is, of course, too strong a word if we take 
it in its full significance. But it is not too strong if 
we understand it as meaning those things which are 
most important to the landscape-gardener; the com- 
positions, the broad pictures, of Nature have been 
wiped out in all thickly settled countries. The effects 
we see may not be artistic effects, may not have resulted 
from a conscious effort after beauty ; but thev are none 



58 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the less artificial. They do not show us what Nature 
wants to do or can do, but What man and Nature liave 
chanced to do together. When English artists became 
dissatisfied with the formal, architectural gardening of 
the seventeenth century, they fondly fancied they were 
learning from Nature how to produce those aspects of 
rural freedom, of idyllic repose, of seemingly unstudied 
grace and charm which were their new desire. But in 
reality they were learning from the face of a country 
which for centuries had been carefully moulded, tended, 
and put to use by man. In some of its parts the effects 
of man's presence were comparatively inconspicuous. 
But of most parts it could be said that for ages not a 
stream or tree or blade of grass had existed except in 
answer to his efforts, or, at least, in consequence of his 
permission; and it was these parts, and not the wilder 
ones, which gave most assistance to the landscape- 
gardener. 

Take, for example, the lawn, which is so essential a 
feature of almost every naturalistic gardening design. 
It is not true, as often has been said, that Nature never 
suggests a lawn. But it is true that she did not suggest 
it to those English gardeners who developed it so beau- 
tifully. They were inspired by the artificially formed 
meadow-lands and forest-glades of the England of their 
time. 

Yet all the semi-natural, semi-artificial beauty of 
England would not have taught them hew to make 
beautiful parks and gardens had they not been taught 
by their own imagination too. What they wanted to 
create was landscapes which should charm from all 
points of view, bear close as well as distant inspection. 



THE ART OF GARDENING 59 

and be free from all inharmonious details ; and, more- 
over, landscapes which should fitly surround the homes 
of men and accommodate their very various needs and 
pleasures. Such landscapes we never find in Nature, 
not even in cultivated, semi-artificial Nature. That is, 
while we can imagine a natural spot which would be an 
appropriate setting for a hunter's lodge or a hermit's 
cell, we can fancy none which would fittingly encircle a 
palace, a mansion, or even a modest home for a man 
Arith civilized habits and tastes. Every step in civiliza- 
tion is a step away from that wild estate which alone is 
truly Nature ; and the further away we get from it 
the more imagination is needed to bring the elements of 
use and beauty which Nature still supplies into harmony 
with those which man has developed. 

The simplest house in the most rural situation needs 
at least that a path shall be carried to its door ; and to 
do as much as cut a path in the most pleasing possible 
way needs a certain amount of imagination, of art. 
How much more, then, is imagination needed in such a 
task as the laying-out of a great estate, where sub- 
ordinate buildings must be grouped around the chief 
one, and all must be accommodated to the unalterable, 
main, natural features of the scene; where a hundred 
minor natural features must be harmoniously disposed ; 
where convenient courses for feet and wheels must be 
provided ; where gardens and orchards must be supplied, 
water must be made at once useful and ornamental, and 
every plant, whether large or small, must be 'beautiful 
in the sense of helping the beauty of the general cflFect ? 
The stronger the desire to make so artificial a coon- 
position look as though Nature might have designed it, 



60 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the more intimate must he the artist's sympathy with 
her aims and processes, and the keener his eye for the 
special opportunities of the site she offers ; but, also, the 
greater must be his imaginative power, the firmer his 
grasp on the principles and processes of art. 



VI 

CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE* 

F. W. Howe 

There was a time — not very long ago — when a 
respectable number of persons who considered them- 
selves well educated had grave doubts whether culture 
and agriculture were not mutuaJlly exclusive terms, 
persons who did not believe that the ordinary farmer 
might rationally be considered a man of culture, or 
perhaps even capable of culture. Indeed, it may be 
questioned whether this point of view was not quite 
generally entertained "among our best people." Ac- 
cording to this philosophy the only hope for the farmer 
to acquire culture lay in the possibility that he might 
somehow rise superior to the natural limitations of his 
daily work, and school liis mind to the contemplation 
of the nobler things of literature, history, and art. The 
study of beet roots had not cultural value to be com- 
pare with the study of Greek roots, nor alfalfa stems 
with Latin stems. 

This type of thought affected even some of those who 
gained their living from the farm, but inherited their 
educational ideals from the past. It is noteworthy even 
yet that the state colleges of agriculture in the South 
and East have generally emphasized the study of some 
foreign language, particularly Latin, as a necessary 

* From The Cornell Countryman by permission. 

61 



62 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

condition or accompaniment of the study of agriculture, 
in order to insure their students at least a fraction of 
the "culture" they might secure in attending other col- 
leges and universities. This notion of the special virtue 
of foreign language study has been generally less 
emphasized in the agricultural colleges of the Northern 
and Western states ; but quite generally over the coun- 
try as a whole, practical assent has been given to the 
view that the land-grant colleges exist for the benefit 
of the sons and daughters of farmers who could not 
afford to pay the cost of attendance at other colleges 
or universities, or who might feel socially out of place 
in these institutions, or who might not be able to meet 
the scholastic requirements of entrance in these other 
schools. 

Possibly it was to remove this last suspicion and to 
reaffirm the cultural capacity of farmers' children, even 
when measured by the older scholastic standards, that 
later on it became the fashion to include a foreign 
language in the entrance requirements of state colleges 
of agriculture, especially when connected with older 
universities. Possibly also a consideration of equity 
was involved in this later fasihion. If the state is to 
furnish free tuition in agriculture, but does not allow 
free tuition in all other college courses, perhaps it must 
justify this policy by imposing a kind of "culture" 
handicap upon the student of agriculture by requiring 
him to study some foreign language as a condition of 
being allowed to study agriculture at state expense. In 
other words, we may coax him or compel him to acquire 
culture by studying the necessary cultural subjects 
before, or along with, his study of agriculture, if the 



CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE (>:3 

agricultural subjects themselves are not cultural enough 
to develop sufficient culture to satisfy the claims of 
citizenship. 

But suppose this requirement turns out to be a real 
handicap in securing the special type of training for 
which the agricultural college was established? Wliat 
shall we say of the boy or girl who studies agriculture 
eagerly in the hig'h school, but who does not care for 
or succeed in the study of the foreign languages ? Shall 
the state deny him the privilege of getting such culture 
and honor as he can by graduation from the college of 
agriculture ? Does the land-grant college of agriculture 
exist for the conferring of culture upon its students? 
And is culture the necessary product of foreign 
language study? Or is preparation and purpose for 
usefulness to be considered equal to if not identical with 
real culture? 

But there may be some reasonable difference of 
opinion as to the meaning of "culture," perhaps even 
when it is spelled with a K and enforced with the sword 
and the submarine. But when we attempt exact defini- 
tion, it seems well to say that real culture may be 
defined negatively much more easily than positively. 
We seem instinctively to know what it is not v/ithout 
being satisfactorily able to say what it is. 

For example, I care not how well schooled a man 
may be, I know that he is not cultured when I hear him 
swear or see him smoke in the presence of either women 
or men who object to this infringement of their own 
rights. If acts like these are compatible with culture, 
then we either miss little in not having it, or else we must 
admit that its champions experience occasional lapses 



64 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

from their allegiance. On the other hand, a man may 
do some things that are forbidden by the code of the 
ultra-cultured without actually losing his claim to 
gentility. I have heard of a scientific type of agricul- 
ture that proposes to produce peas that are flat on 
one side so that they will not roll off a table knife. 
And I presume this whimsical proposition is accepted 
in some quarters as sufficient evidence of the irrepress- 
ible conflict between culture and agriculture. But 
conceivably a man might even eat peas or pie with a 
knife and be a gentleman still if he absolutely had no 
fork or spoon to save him from starvation. And so a 
man may keep his seat in a car while women are stand- 
ing and yet be a cultured gentleman — 'for he might be 
sitting on the window-sill or the hand-rail or on another 
man's lap ; or he Ttiight have much further to ride than 
the lady ; or he might be wearied with a long day's 
work and have a mile or two to walk after leaving the 
car, while she has just stepped out of an easy chair at 
home ; or, yet again, he might be ill and unable to stand ; 
or perchance he might be reading behind a paper and 
never see her at all ! And so a gentleman's seat is to be 
held or surrendered according to the special circum- 
stances of each case. The lady herself is noit truly 
cultured who expects a man to act invariably according 
to a fixed prescription regardless of conditions. 

The essence of culture is considerateness. Culture is 
not to be learned by memorizing books on etique'tte. It 
is not a slavish following of rules, nor the ability to 
repeat formulas or pronounce big words or interpret 
dark sentences. Culture is not anything that must be 
learned from books or by intimate association with 



CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE 65 

select persons or through imitation of distinguished 
models of excellence. Culture is not anything that can 
be positively guaranteed as the result of pursuing a 
prescribed course of study. No student can say, "These 
and these subjects I shall put into my program, and 
when I have finished I shall be a man of culture." 

Lest these views shall be regarded as merely the pro- 
nouncements of personal opinion, let me support them 
with the statements of a few educators who will be 
accepted as good authority. President A. Ross Hill, 
of the University of Missouri, says : 

Culture is not inherent in particular forms of subject-matter, 
but is a by-product of the educational process, and represents an 
attitude of mind and life rather than a particular kind of 
knowledge. 

And in similar language speaks President R. C. Mc- 
Laurin, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology : 

Some speak as if the test of culture were the knowledge of 
Latin, or Greek, or of French literature, or of Italian painting, or 
of what not. As a matter of fact it is none of these things, for 
I take it that the root of culture in any worthy sense is the 
possession of an ideal that is broad enough to form the basis of 
a sane criticism of life. 

Let me add to tliese words a statement by Professor 
W. H. Heck, author of "Mental Discipline and Educa- 
tional Values": 

It is a sad commentary upon our educational abstractness that 
we often fail to realize the high and noble inclusiveness of the ideal 
of use in our preparation of girls and boys for efficiency and 
service in society. We sometimes run away from the real test of 
real things and cry out for culture, as if culture had any meaning 
apart from its use in adjustment. 

Again, Professor John Dewey, of Columbia Uni- 
versity : 

The assumption that a training is good in general just in the 
degree in which it is good for nothing in particular, is one for 



66 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

which it would be difficult to find any adequate philosophical 
ground. Training, discipline, must finally be measured in terms 
of application, of availability. To be trained is to be trained to 
something and for something. 

Finally let me remind you of these words from the 
late Commissioner Draper, then President of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York : 

New York will never relax her grasp upon the things which 
culture the minds and souls of men, but it is to be hoped that she 
will realize better than she has that the finest and deepest culture 
comes through work; that work by the hand and by the head are 
yoke-fellows in our free civilization, and that both the rights and 
the prosperity of her people hinge upon the professional and 
industrial equilibrium of her tax-supported education. 

There is a hint in these last words that we may even 
professionalize the technical subj ects in our agricultural 
colleges to the extent that we almost entirely obscure or 
ignore their industrial application. We may so sub- 
divide and elaborate our courses of study that no ordi- 
nary student can in four years compass enough of them 
to equip himself for practical efficiency on the farm. 
Indeed, this is the criticism most often directed against 
the agricultural college. Are we, perhaps, getting so 
much of culture that we are falling short in our agri- 
culture.'* Is it a fact that our acres are becoming so 
productive under scientific management that we need 
have no concern for our future food supply.'' Under 
the leadership of the colleges are our farmers becoming 
so efficient that fewer and fewer will need to stay on the 
farm.'' If this be so, do we need to train more and more 
leaders in agriculture to direct these few, or are the 
colleges of agriculture devoting themselves to the train- 
ing of leaders for city life? 

It seems to be true that the more freely the college 
student of agriculture is turned loose in the field of 



CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE 07 

specialization, the less frequently does he return to 
practical agricultural pursuits. It is the admitted aim 
of some state agricultural colleges, if not the ambition 
of all, to train their graduates mostly to be "leaders" 
rather than practical farmers ; but it is certain that we 
must be approaching a condition of equilibrium. The 
movement of young men from country to city cannot go 
on indefinitely and 3'et it is necessary to train in the 
colleges an increasing number of highly specialized 
agricultural leaders. We shall soon need to cultivate 
some people on the farms who are willing to be led. 
Some of these leaders must actually establish them- 
selves on farms and demonstrate their ability to lead 
and be led by their college training. 

If you ask me whether we have been getting too much 
culture and too little practical agriculture in the col- 
leges, my answer is, we have been getting too little cul- 
ture out of our practical agriculture on the farms. We 
have overlooked or disregarded the culture obtainable 
directly from agriculture. We need more men educated 
in scientific agriculture who believe in the cultural pos- 
sibilities of farm life, and who are practically willing to 
live in the country and demonstrate to their neighbors 
the practicability of the culture they have received in 
the college, and thus to elevate the common life of their 
own community. 

Too many young men from the tovvTis and cities are 
studying agriculture as a profession rather than as an 
occupation. They intend to be "gentlemen farmers," 
but do not intend to work much with their own hands. 
They expect to "make money" on the farm by using 
their father's city-earned capital, but they do not 



68 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

usually expect to associate with their country neigh- 
bors and build up the social and religious life of the 
neighborhood. So strong seems this tendency of city 
boys to use their study of agriculture as a means of 
personal profit rather than community betterment, that 
colleges of agriculture are coming to be crowded with 
them. And the inducement of free tuition offered by the 
state also attracts many others who have no vital, per- 
sonal interest in farming itself, but merely utilize the 
college of agriculture as a means of securing a good 
scientific and social training that can be profitably 
turned to other occupations. 

The state normal schools require prospective students 
to subscribe to some sort of declaration that they intend 
to use their training for teaching in the public schools. 
A similar declaration from every student of agriculture 
in a tax-supported college of his intention to devote his 
training to practical agriculture, or to research or 
teaching in furthering the practice of agriculture, 
would probably test the elasticity of some consciences. 
If the requirement of two or three years in a foreign 
language is intended to discourage such students from 
rushing into agriculture, I submit that it is a require- 
ment that can be mu'ch more easily prepared for in the 
city schools than in the country, that it is more 
naturally related to the city boy's mind and environ- 
ment, and that as a deterrent from agricultural study 
it is much less effective than a requirement of one year's 
practical experience on the farm w^ould be. 

There can be no question that a year's work on a farm 
would disclose the city boy's fitness to study agriculture 
much more positively than the ability to read a selected 



CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE 69 

chapter in Cassar. In fact, to insure that the city boy 
has at least a fair understanding of what agriculture is 
and means, and that lie has a mental and moral attitude 
toward it that implies at least some partial return to 
the state for his free tuition, it would seem a fair re- 
quirement that every city boy should have the experi- 
ence of working for a whole year on a good farm before 
ho presents himself for entrance at a college of agri- 
culture. It seems unfair to the boy himself either to 
take his money for tuition or to tempt him by free 
tuition to enter upon a four-year agricultural course 
without an adequate preliminary conception of what a 
course in agriculture ought to mean. 

The old conception of culture doubtless grew out of 
the ambitious tendency of the lower order of society to 
ape the manners and accomplishments of the higher. 
In medieval times the priest and the monk must know 
Latin in order to read the Scriptures and officiate in 
the rites of the Church. The peasant boy who aspired to 
the service of the Church looked forward to the mastery 
of Latin as a vocational requirement ; it was to be used 
in his calling. But to the humbler members of his 
family his attainment in the use of an unknown tongue 
became the proof of superior refinement and culture. 
Likewise the English peasant lad or lass who was 
fortunate enough to become connected with the retinue 
of a nobleman must learn French in order to qualify 
himself for promotion to higher circles of influence. 
And so with the study of mathemiatics as a prerequisite 
for the ancient pursuit of astronomy. In short, all the 
educational subjects that have attained high esteem for 
their cultural value were first courted because of their 



70 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Tocational value, as means to the better performance of 
some social or professional duty. The point I wish to 
urge here is that Latin still had cultural value for the 
priest who used it in his service ; it did not become cul- 
tural by becoming useless. And if this be true, then 
every useful subject of study may become a means of 
culture for the actual user, and in a secondary sense it 
may also become passively cultural for the one who 
studies it merely for general information without ex- 
pecting, primarily, to put it to the test of use. We must 
agree to this point of view unless we are to admit that 
culture invariably results from the study of that which 
is fundamentally useless. 

Wliat, then, are the possibilities of culture in relation 
to agriculture.'' My conviction is that, regardless of 
whether a man has studied Latin or German, regardless 
of whether he now eats peas with a Icnife or a fork, re- 
gardless of whether he is the graduate of a college of 
agriculture or a college of liberal arts, or of none, if he 
is a real farmer he can unconsciously acquire genuine 
culture of mind and soul in the routine practice of his 
daily occupation. 

No other occupation compares with modern farming 
in the opportunit}^ it offers for constant mental pro- 
gression, if one has the native appetite for progress. If 
one has it not, or if it has not 3'et been awakened in the 
soul, then no study of French or music, art or esthetics, 
mathematics or metaphysics can make him a cultured 
man or woman. Lincoln found culture in a log cabin 
with two or three books and his own thoughts. 

Wealth and ease of life are not the necessary con- 
ditions of culture. It cannot be bought with a price or 



CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE 71 

put on like a garment. Pianos and fox trots, vic- 
trolas land super-sixes, do not bring culture into coun- 
try homes. It must begin on the inside of the personal 
and family life and blossom in words and acts that dis- 
close superior character. And no other type of life is 
more favorable to the development of worthy character 
than is the work of the farm. The farmer needs only 
the vision of reality, of seeing the invisible in the visible, 
to appreciate the essential sacrcdness of the things with 
which he deals. He is the chief producer of mankind's 
daily food, the hand that feeds the world. If the under- 
standing and contemplation of this fact do not bring a 
sense of the responsibility and dignity of his service, 
then we have much yet to pray for. 

The hope of a wholesome American life lies in the 
prospect that our farmers may come not only to the 
full appreciation and discharge of their dut}'^ as pro- 
ducers but also to the realization of the full possibilities 
of personal culture which farming should afford. The 
burden of our teaching hitherto and the aim of most 
government activity in the farmer's behalf has been to 
show him how to produce more bushels and tons per 
acre ; but he knows now how to produce more than it is 
commonly profitable for him to produce. He does not 
wish now to be shown how he can live on twenty-five 
cents a day so much as to be shown how his income will 
enable him to live as well as he ought to. He is not 
satisfied with the mode and scale of living nor with the 
hours of labor that satisfied his grandfather. He wants 
more of the joy of living. If he was to be kept con- 
tented with the peasant's lot his larger education 
should never have been started by the state. Education 



72 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

is ever a disturber of the peace that sleeps in serfdom. 
Instil in man the taste of knowledge and you awaken a 
troop of energies that will scale the heights of culture. 
What has agricultural learning done to quicken these 
springs of self -development? Possibly not so much as 
we could wish for the adult and aged members of the 
farm home, these survivors from the day when agri- 
culture was not taught in the common schools. But 
what of the farm boy and girl of to-day? The study of 
useful plants, birds, and animals, that constitutes an 
important part of all real farm work, is the most 
helpful sort of nature study. Companionship with 
father and mother as well as with brothers and sisters 
in doing the work of the farm is a kind of education 
greatly needed in our day. The city boy and girl often 
go astray because they are so constantly associated 
only with those of their own inexperienced age when out- 
side the schoolroom. The child of the farm is about the 
only one who has a fair chance to develop a normal 
human life. He learns responsibility for his own share 
of chores and harder work. He learns the value of 
money, of work, of time, and of recreation. He learns 
the meaning of duty that must be done at the right time, 
and the joy of rest after work. He can sleep and enjoy 
wholesome food and he rarely calls a doctor. He knows 
the difference between the size of a rabbit and the size of 
a cow though both pictures may occupy equal space in 
the book. He knows that milk does not originally come 
out of a bottle. He doesn't have to "keep off the grass." 
He has a thousand sources of information and delight 
that come only on occasions to the city boy. All these 
conditions tend to develop a breadth of mind and a 



CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE 73 

sturdy resourcefiilness that is the best possible prepa- 
ration for usefubiess in later life. 

Some city people have worried much over the effect 
of isolation on the culture of the rural home. It may 
in fact be considered an advantage rather than a disad- 
vantage. It is true that a certain degree of isolation is 
characteristic of all farms that are large enough to be 
profitable. For normal social development the farmer's 
family must therefore be able in a large degree to enter- 
tain themselves at home. The man or woman who must 
always be making or returning calls, or attending 
"parties" will have to develop a more conservative 
social habit if he gives needed time, energy, and thought 
to making his farm business successful. One of the 
great moral advantages of country life is that it tends 
to develop the habit of meditation while at work. A 
good countryman must be "good company" for himself 
and his own family. His personality must be of a high 
type. As Warren put it in relation to dairying, "No 
one can produce clean milk who does not have a clean 
body and a clean mind." As a matter of social fact, 
there is often more of real, helpful friendship between 
farm families who live two or three miles apart than 
exists between those living on adjacent city lots. A 
certain degree of seclusion is good for every family that 
is not dependent on neighbors for inspiration in its own 
home life. 

I have already alluded to the teaching of agriculture 
in the rural school. We are passing the day when the 
country school and its teacher drew all their inspiration 
from the activities of urban life. And I hope we are 
passing the day when the rural church and its pastor 



74 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

drew inspiration chiefly from the same source. The 
rural school that does not use its natural environment 
as subject matter and illustration for teaching does 
not encourage boys and girls to stay on the farm. And 
the rural church whose pastor never preaches in terms 
of country life, and whose congregation never interests 
itself in community betterment, does not perform its 
full duty to the state which exempts its property from 
taxation. If the church is merely an exclusive social 
club, its property should be taxed like that of any other 
private club. The church particularly, because it is not 
supported by taxation, can never thrive in an unpros- 
perous farming community. For its own preservation 
it must recognize the obligation to do its share in 
promoting the economic welfare of its neighborhood. 
The rural preacher should know at least enough about 
farming to interest farmers themselves in the agriculture 
of the Bible as a means of teaching religious truth. 
One of the highest possibilities of country life is dis- 
closed in the natural relationship between good preach- 
ing and good farming. This relationship is more than 
economic, but it grows out of consistent economic views 
and principles. 

If this discussion has wandered far afield, let us now, 
in conclusion, return like the preacher to his text. 
Culture and Agriculture are not opposing terms. We 
are to believe and learn that agriculture needs no 
importation of goods from any other realm to provide 
food for the care and culture of men. As the fields of 
the earth bring forth all manner of fruits for the 
sustenance of the physical life, so also does their culti- 
vation afford stimulus and direction to the mental and 



CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE 75 

moral life. For no one can be a successful husbandman 
who does not follow tho law of Nature, which is the law 
of God. "The Holy Earth" is the source of thoughts 
that reach to the Infinite, if we listen to her teaching. 

Culture is the product of thoughtfulness, the under- 
standing of facts, the appreciation of truth. If it be 
said that culture involves the love of poetry, all nature 
is a poem. If it includes a mastery of science, the 
farmer must be the broadest scientist. If it calls for 
statesmanship, farming itself is the foundation of the 
state. If it demands devotion to the arts, the husband- 
man is the keenest craftsman of them all. And if it 
requires creative genius to generate culture, the master 
of the farm is himself a creator of value, of beauty, of 
influence, and of new knowledge for the world's 
instruction. 

If the farmer of to-day is not living up to the cultural 
possibilities inherent in his calling, it is because he is 
deaf and blind to spiritual invitations that solicit him 
to the mastery of forces that have produced the 
miracles and the wisdom of the ages. For most of us 
culture must take root in vocation, it cannot be brought 
from afar. But he who holds the plow may yet look off 
and look up. His mind may be busy with the conquest 
of the world. There is no enmity between culture and 
agriculture. 



THE FARMER OF THE PRESENT 



VII 

THE FARMER: THE CORNER-STONE OF 
CIVILIZATION * 

Theodore Roosevelt 

Recently an Indiana woman was peeling some 
potatoes, and in a hollow in one she found a note from 
the Southern farmer who had raised the potatoes 
running : 

"I got 69c a bushel for these potatoes. How much 
did you pay for them?" 

She ■wrote back: 

"I paid $4 per bushel." 

The farmer sent her just one more letter. It said: 

"I got 69c for these potatoes. It could not have cost 
more than 31c to carry them to you. Who got the 
other $3? I am going to try to find out." 

It is idle to say that when such an occurrence is 
typical — and it most certainly is to a large extent 
typical — there is no cause for uneasiness. Something 
is wrong. It may be wholly the fault of outsiders. It 
may be at least partially the fault of the farmers and 
of those who eat the food the farmers raise. The trouble 
may be so deep-rooted in our social system that extreme 
caution must be exercised in striving for betterment. 
But one thing is certain. The situation is not satis- 

* From "The Foes of Our Own Household," by Theodore Roosevelt. 
Copyright, 1917, George H. Doran Co., Publishers. 

79 



80 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

factory and calls for a thoroughgoing investigation, 
with the determination to make whatever changes, 
including radical changes, are necessary in order once 
more to put on a healthy basis the oldest and most 
essential of all occupations, the occupation which is the 
foundation of all others, the occupation of the tiller of 
the soil, of the* man who by his own labor raises the raw 
material of food and clothing, without which the whole 
fabric of the most gorgeous civilization will topple in 
a week. 

We cannot permanently shape our course right on 
any international issue unless we ere sound on the 
domestic issues ; and this farm movement is the funda- 
mental social issue — the one issue which is even more 
basic than the relations of capitalist and workingman. 
The farm industry cannot stop ; the world is never 
more than a year from starvation ; this great war has 
immensely increased the cost of living without com- 
mensurately improving the condition of the men who 
produce the things on which we live. Even in this 
country the situation has become grave. 

The temporary causes of this situation have pro- 
duced such effect in our la«nd only because they 
aggravated conditions due to fundamental causes whicli 
have long been at work. These fundamental causes may 
all be included in one: the farmer's business in our coun- 
try has remained almost unchanged during the century 
which has seen every other business change in profound 
and radical fashion. He still works by methods 
belonging to the day of the stage-coach and the horse 
canal-^boat, while every other brain or hand worker in 
the country has been obliged to shape his methods into 



THE CORNER-STONE OF CIVILIZATION 81 

more or less conformity to those required by an age of 
steam and electricity. 

Our commercial, banking, manufacturing, and trans- 
portation systems have been built up with a rapidity 
never before approached. We have accumulated wealth 
at an unheard of rate. There has been grave injustice 
in the distribution of the wealth, our law-givers having 
erred both by wisdom in leaving the matter alone, and 
at times by even greater unwisdom when they interfered 
with it. But on the whole the growth and prosperity 
have been enormous ; and yet wc have allowed the basic 
industry of farming, the industry which underlies all 
economic life, to drift along haphazard, we have allowed 
the life of the dwellers in the open country to become 
more and more meager, and their methods of produc- 
tion and of marketing to remain so primitive that their 
soil was impoverished and their profits largely usurped 
by others. 

In 1880, one farmer in four was a tenant ; and at that 
time the tenant was still generally a young man to whom 
the position of tenant was merely an intermediate step 
between that of farm laborer and that of a farm owner. 
In 1910, over one farmer in three had become a tenant ; 
and nowadays it becomes steadily more difficult to pass 
from the tenant to the owner stage. If the process 
continues unchecked, half a century hence we shall have 
deliberately permitted ourselves to plunge Into the situ- 
ation which brought chaos in Ireland, and Avhlch in 
England resulted in the complete elimination of the old 
yeomanry, so that nearly nine tenths of English farmers 
to-day are tenants and the consequent class division is 
most ominous for the future. France and Germany arc 



82 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

to-day distinctly better off than we are in this respect ; 
and in New Zealand, where there is an excellent system 
of land distribution, only one seventh of the farmers are 
tenants. 

If the tendencies that have produced such a con- 
dition continue to work unchecked no prophetic power 
is needed to 'foretell disaster to the nation. Therefore, 
the one hopeless attitude, in this as in recent inter- 
national matters, is "watchful waiting," sitting still 
and doing nothing to prepare for or to avert disaster. 
It is far better to try experiments, even when we are not 
certain how these experiments will turn out, or when we 
are certain that the proposed plan contains elements of 
folly as well as elements of wisdom. Better "trial and 
error" than no trial at all. And the service test, the 
test of actual experiment, is the only conclusive test. 
It is only the attempt in actual practice to realize a 
realizable ideal that contains hope. Mere writing and 
oratory and enunciation of theory, with no attempt to 
secure the service test, amounts to nothing. 

This applies to the tenancy problem. It also applies 
to every other farming problem. As regards each, let 
us test the plans for reform, so far as may be, by actual 
practice. 

For many of these plans the several states offer them- 
selves as natural laboratories, where experiments can 
be tried when conditions and public opinion are right ; 
and this although the permanent remedies must ulti- 
mately, at least in major part, be national. It Is ex- 
ceeding'ly interesting to watch such an experiment as 
that seemingly to be tried In North Dakota. This is a 
farming state, where the farming Is the predominant 



THE CORNER-STONE OF CIA'ILIZATION 83 

interest, and inasmuch as all reforms cost money, and as 
even advisable reforms become utterly disastrous if in 
spending money upon them we treat "the sky as the 
limit," and decline to consider the proportion between 
what the reform achieves and what it costs, it is well 
that the farmers themselves should pay a good pro- 
portion of the cost of reforms necessary to and 
peculiarly affecting themselves. In North Dakota, in 
addition to matters like hail insurance, it is proposed 
that the state shall purchase and operate grain ele- 
vators, mills, and terminals, and other business instru- 
mentalities of vital concern to farmers. I most heartily 
commend the earnest effort the leaders in the movement 
have made actually to "better conditions ; and I say this 
although from the facts at my command I judge that 
most of the work which it is thus proposed to have done 
by the state could be done better by cooperative 
societies among the farmers themselves. Present con- 
ditions should certainly be changed. To keep them 
unchanged is to act in a spirit of mere Toryis^m. From 
the North Dakota experiment, when put in actual prac- 
tice, we can learn some things to follow and some things 
to avoid; and perhaps we can also learn to be wise in 
time, and, by sane determination to put in practice 
reforms that we are reasonably sure will have no bad 
effects, avoid the sad necessity of paying with our own 
skins for experiments which probably will have bad 
effects. 

I greatly prefer to see the Government leave un- 
touched whatever the corporations under Government 
supervision can do ; and just as far as possible I want to 
see all the corporations made into cooperative asso- 



84 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

ciations. But there are things so important that the 
Government must do them, if it is only through such 
exercise of collective power that they can be done. 

Our object must be (1) to make the tenant farmer a 
landowner; (2) to eliminate as far as possible the con- 
ditions which produce the shifting, seasonal, tramp type 
of la'bor, and to give the farm laborer a permanent 
status, a career as a fanner, for which his school educa- 
tion shall fit him, and which shall open to him the chance 
of in the end earning the ownership in fee of his own 
farm; (3) to secure cooperation among the small land- 
owners, so that their energies shall produce the best 
possible results; (4) by progressive taxation or in 
other fashion to break up and prevent the formation of 
great landed estates, especially in so far as they consist 
of unused agricultural land; (5) to make capital avail- 
able for the farmers, and thereby put them more on 
equality with other men engaged in business ; (6) to care 
for the woman on the farm as much as for the man, and 
to eliminate the conditions which now so often tend to 
make her life one of gray and sterile drudgery; (7) to 
do this primarily through the farmer himself, but also 
when necessary, by the use of the entire collective power 
of the people of the country ; for the welfare of the 
farmer Is the concern of all of us. 

The most important thing to do Is to make the tenant 
fanner a farm owner. He must be financed so that he 
can acquire title to the land. In New Zealand the gov- 
ernment buys land and sells It to small holders at the 
price paid with a low rate of interest. Perhaps our 
Government could try this plan, or else could outright 
advance the money, charging three and a half per cent. 



THE CORNER-STONE OF CIVILIZATION 85 

interest. Default in payments — which should of course 
be on easy terms — would mean that the land reverted to 
the Government. The experience of the firms which 
have loaned to the largest number of people to acquire 
homes on small instalment payments has been that fore- 
closure occurs in a very small percentage of cases ; but 
it would have to be absolutely understood that no failure 
to pay would be tolerated ; for such toleration would in 
the end discredit the whole system, and work ruin to the 
honest and hard-working men who would pay. We 
could follow the precedents established in connection 
with the reclamation act in the arid and semi-arid 
regions of the West. It would be desirable, and entirely 
feasible, to try the experiment first on a small scale, in 
experimental fashion ; and then to apply it on a larger 
and larger scale with the modifications shown to be 
necessary in actual practice. 

To break up the big estates it might be best to try the 
graduated land tax, or else to equalize taxes as between 
used and unused agricultural land, which would prevent 
farm land being held for speculative purposes. There 
can without question be criticism of either proposal. If 
any better proposal can be made and tried we can cheer- 
fully support it and be guided in our theories by the 
way it turns out. But wc ought to insist on something 
being done — not merely talked about. Every one is 
agreed that we ought to get more people "back to the 
land"; but talk on the subject is utterly useless unless 
we put it in concrete shape and secure a "service test" 
even though it costs some money to furnish the means 
for doing what we say must be done. 

As regards furnishing capital to the farmer, the first 



86 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

need is that we shall understand that this is essential, 
and is recognized to be essential in most civilized lands 
outside of Russia and the United States, but especially 
in Denmark, France, and Germany. Our farmers must 
have working capital. The present laws for providing 
farm loans do not meet the most important case of all, 
that of the tenant farmer, and do not adequately pro- 
vide for the land-owning farmer. An immense amount of 
new capital — an amount to be reckoned in billions of 
dollars — is needed for the proper development of the 
farms of the United States, in order that our farmers 
may pass from the position of under-production per 
acre, may improve and fertilize their lands, and so stock 
them as both to secure satisfactory returns upon the 
money invested and also enormously to increase the 
amount of food produced, while permanently enhancing 
the value of the land. Lack of capital on the part of 
the farmer inevitably means soil exhaustion and there- 
fore diminished production. The farmer who is to 
prosper must have capital; only the prosperous can 
really meet the needs of the consumer ; and in this, as in 
every other kind of honest business, the only proper 
basis of success is benefit to both buyer and seller, pro- 
ducer and consumer. 

To achieve certain of these objects it may be neces- 
sary to make use of the Government ; but wherever 
possible it is better to use private, usually corporate or 
cooperative, effort. I believe that the day is coming 
when many kinds of successful business will admit, and 
insist on, an alloy of philanthropy. It often adds to, 
instead of diminishing, business success, to become 
within reasonable limits one's brother's keeper. (Is it 



THE CORNER-STONE OF CIVILIZATION 87 

necessary to say that in this as in everything else there 
is need of common sense?) 

The Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society 
has actually tried the experiment of a land bank to help 
men become farmers. In seventeen years, at an outlay 
of two million dollars, it has established thirty-five hun- 
dred families on farms ; and the losses have been small. 
The manager of this society is now head of the Federal 
Land IBank in Springfield, Massachusetts. He has pro- 
posed an agrarian land bank to do for the United States 
as a whole what it has already taken part in successfully 
doing for some thousands of people. Such a land bank 
would aid tenants to become landowners, agricultural 
laborers to become small farmers, and landless immi- 
grants with a farming past to go out on the land — 
where we need them. 

California, under the wise administration of Hiram 
Johnson, pointed the path for advance in this as in so 
many other directions. She has begun the development 
of five thousand acres, not by merely throwing the land 
open for settlement, but by building roads, school- 
houses, and even certain "improvements" on farms of 
suitable size; the effort has been to help the man who 
wishes to farm to go into the country and there find 
livable conditions. 

Whenever farmers themselves have the intelligence 
and energy to work through cooperative societies this 
is far better than having the state iindertake the work. 
Community self-help is normally preferable to using the 
machinery of government for tasks to which it is unac- 
customed. This applies to the ownership of granaries, 
slaughterhouses, and the like. There are in Europe 



88 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

cooperative farmers' associations which own and run at 
a profit man}' such institutions ; and when this is shown 
to be the case, the other owners of such agencies face 
the accomplished fact; and it often becomes possible 
for the farmers then to deal with them on a satisfactory 
basis. 

In Europe these great farmer cooperative asso- 
ciations sometimes control the whole machinery by 
which their products are marketed. Each little district 
has its own cooperative group. The groups of all the 
districts in the state are united again in a large cooper- 
ative unit. In this way they do collectively what is 
beyond the power of any one farmer individually to 
accomplish. By sending their shipments to market they 
move them in great bulk-quantities at the lowest possible 
cost. They contract for long periods ahead and sell in 
the most advantageous market. Middlemen are elimi- 
nated. The labor of moving farm products is reduced 
to a minimum. But these enterprises are not state enter- 
prises. The relationship of the state to them is confined 
to supervision, just as our bank examiners supervise the 
association of stockholders who come together to do a 
banking business ; and certain general regulations that 
are in the interest of public policy are imposed upon 
them. A standard of equity and fair dealing is main- 
tained by the forcing of the publication of accounts and 
by supplying disinterested examiners who see to it that 
equity is preserved by honesty and fairness among those 
associated in the enterprise. 

Of course the personal equation is all important ; the 
best of schemes will work badly if we force it against 
the fundamental issues of fairness and honesty. 



THE CORNER-STONE OF CIVILIZATION 89 

A single farmer to-day is no match for the corpora- 
tions, railroads, and business enterprises with which he 
must deal. Organized into cooperative associations, 
however, the farmer's power would be enormously 
increased. The principle upon which such cooperative 
groups are formed is very simple. The profits are 
divided partly into the shape of a rebate that is paid in 
proportion to the volume of business done for each 
member. The control, however, of the association does 
not depend upon the number of shares that a member 
may own but rests upon the democratic basis of one 
man, one vote. In such associations they elect their own 
officers who are specifically qualified to deal with the 
agricultural problems of the association. These officers 
are subject to the direct control of those whose business 
and interests they handle. In this way politics is kept 
out of the farmer's business. Through cooperative 
organization our farmers can build up their strength. 

And normally they can do better In this way than by 
recourse to an extreme form of state Socialism. The 
farmers of Denmark, Holland, and parts of France, 
North Italy, and Germany have pointed the way. In 
Denmark on a country road In the afternoon one can 
see a man wearing a cap of the cooperative association 
push a light wagon through the village, gathering from 
each house a dozen or two dozen eggs and a roll of 
butter and cheese. As he takes It he stamps the eggs 
and records the quantity delivered In the record book 
of the member. At the end of his three or four mile trip 
he meets a half-dozen other men at a small transfer 
station owned by the cooperative association. There 
wagons or trucks load the products brought In and haul 



90 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

them to a near-by railroad station where the trucks from 
five or six transfer stations gather and fill a railroad 
car. The railroad car starts and in its journey to the 
seaport meets several dozen additional cars loaded with 
the products of the association. At the seaport a ship 
load is waiting and the entire train load of products is 
loaded and started for England. In England this ship 
is unloaded in the warehouse of an Eng'lish cooperative 
association. The products — ^^butter, eggs, cheese, milk, 
and other standard farm outputs — have been contracted 
for on a sliding scale on a yearly basis in advance. 
Between the peasant farmer of Denmark and the work- 
ingman consumer in London there is no middleman. 
Handling charges are reduced to the minimum. The 
gain goes to the producer in the shape of almost the 
full price and to the consumer in the shape of reduced 
cost. The cooperative farmers' association of Den- 
mark buys saltpeter and nitrates in Chili by the ship- 
load, and distributes them as they are unloaded in car- 
load lots to the cooperative associations in every village 
at a handling charge that is almost insignificantly small. 
This is the right way for farmers to organize. 

Examples of what is done in foreign lands are of 
great use ; yet we must always adapt them to our own 
needs, and not merely copy them; for no scheme of 
national betterment can succeed unless it takes into 
account national characteristics. Experiments in our 
own country therefore have a peculiar guidance value 
for us. For this reason those interested in the problem 
of farm life can well afford to pay some attention to 
what Is at this moment being done In certain districts of 
our own country. 



VIII 

THE NEW F^\RMER * 
Kenyon L. Butterfield 

All farmers may be divided into three classes. There 
is the "old" farmer, there is the "new" farmer, and there 
is the "mossback." The old farmer represents the 
ancient regime. The new farmer is the modern business 
agriculturist. The mossback is a medieval survival. 
The old farmer was in his day a new farmer ; he vras "up 
with the times," as the times then were. The new farmer 
is merely the worthy son of a noble sire ; he is the modem 
embodiment of the old farmer's progressiveness. The 
mossback is the man who tries to use the old methods 
under the new conditions ; he is not "up" with the pres- 
ent time, but "back" with the old times. Though he 
lives and moves in the present, he really has his being 
in the past. 

The old farmer is the man who conquered the Amer- 
ican continent. His axe struck the crown from the 
monarchs of the wood, and the fertile farms of Ohio are 
the kingdom he created. He broke the sod of the rich 
prairies, and the tasseling cornfields of Iowa tell the 
stor}^ of his deeds. He hitched his plow to the sun, and 
his westward lengthening furrows fill the world's 
granary. 

* From "Chapters in Rural Progress," by permission of the publishers, 
University of Chicago Press. 

91 



92 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

The new farmer has his largest conquests yet to make. 
But he has put his faith in the strong arm of science ; 
he has at his hand the commercial mechanism of a world 
of 'business. He believes he will win because he is in 
league with the ongoing forces of our civilization. 

The mossback cannot win, because he prefers a flint- 
lock to a Mauser. He has his eyes upon the ground, 
and uses snails instead of stars for horses. 

The old farmer was a pioneer, and he had all the 
courage, enterprise, and resourcefulness of the pioneer. 
He was virile, above all things else. He owned and con- 
trolled everything in sight. He was a state-builder. 
Half a century ago, in the Middle West, the strong men 
and the influential families were largely farmers. Even 
professional men owned and managed farms, frequently 
living upon them. The smell of the soil sweetened musty 
law books, deodorized the doctor's den, and floated as 
incense above the church altars. 

The new farmer lives in a day when the nation is not 
purely an agricultural nation, but is also a manufac- 
turing and a trading nation. He belongs no longer to 
the dominant class, so far as commercial and social and 
political influences are concerned. But none of these 
things move him. For he realizes that out of this seem- 
ing decline of agriculture grow his best opportunities. 
He discards pioneer methods because pioneering is 
not now an eff'ective art. 

The mossback sees perhaps clearly enough these 
changes, but he does not understand their meaning, nor 
does he know how to meet them. He is dazzled by the 
romantic halo of the good old times, dumfounded by 
the electric energy of the present, discouraged and dis- 



THE NEW FARMER 93 

tracted by the pressure of forces that crush his hopes 
and stifle his strength. 

Economically, the old farmer was not a business man, 
but a barterer. The rule of barter still survives in the 
country grocery where butter and eggs are traded for 
sugar and salt. The old farmer was industrially self- 
sufficient. He did not farm on a commercial basis. He 
raised apples for eating and for cider, not for market — 
there was no apple market. He had very little ready 
money, he bought and sold few products. He traded. 
Even his grain, which afterwards became the farmer's 
great cash crop, was raised in small quantities and 
ground at the nearest mill — not for export, but for a 
return migration to the family flour-barrel. 

The new farmer has always existed — because he is 
the old farmer growing. He has kept pace with our 
industrial evolution. When the regime of barter passed 
away, he ceased to barter. When the world's market 
became a fact, he raised wheat for the world's market. 
As agriculture became a business, he became a business 
man. As agricultural science began to contribute to 
the art of farming, he studied applied science. As in- 
dustrial education developed, he founded and patronized 
institutions for agricultural education. As alertness 
and enterprise began to be indispensable in commercial 
activity, he grew alert and enterprising. 

The mossback is the man who has either misread the 
signs of the times, or who has not possessed the speed 
demanded in the two-minute class. He is the old farmer 
gone to seed. He tries to fit the old methods to the 
new regime. 

But it is not sufficient to picture the new farmer. 



94 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

You must explain him. What is it that makes the new 
farmer? Who is he? What are his tools? In the first 
place, you cannot explain the new farmer unless you 
know the old farmer. You cannot have the new farmer 
unless you also have the mossback. The new farmer is 
a comparative person, as it were. You have to define 
him in terms of the mossback. The contrast is not 
between the old farmer and the new, for that is merely a 
question of relative conditions in diiferent epochs of 
time. The contrast is between the new farmer and the 
mossback, for that is a question of men and of their 
relative efficiency as members of the industrial order. 
Then, of course, you must observe the individual traits 
that characterize the new farmer, such as keenness, 
business instinct, readiness to adopt new methods, and, 
in fact, all the qualities that make a man a success 
to-day in any calling. For the new farmer, in respect 
to his personal qualities, is not a sport, a phenomenon. 
He does not stand out as a distinct and peculiar speci- 
men. He is a successful American citizen who grows 
corn instead of making steel rails. 

But you have not yet explained the new farmer. 
These personal traits do not explain him. It may be 
possible to explain an individual and his success by 
calling attention to his characteristics, and yet you 
cannot completely analyze him and his career unless 
you understand the conditions under which he works — 
the industrial and social environment. Much less can 
you explain a class of people by describing their per- 
sonal characteristics. You must reach out into the 
great current of life that is about them, and discern the 
direction and power of that current. 



THE NEW FARMER 95 

Now, the conditions that tend to make the new 
farmer possible may be grouped in an old-fashioned way 
under two heads. In the old scientific phrases the two 
forces that make the new farmer are the "struggle for 
life" and "environment," or, to use other words, com- 
petition and opportunity. 

Competition has pressed severely upon the farmer, 
competition at home and competition from other coun- 
tries. At one time the heart of the wheat-growing 
industry of this country was near Rochester, N. Y., in 
the Genesee Valley ; but the canal and the railway soon 
made possible the occupation of the great granary of 
the West. A multitude of ambitious young men soon 
took possession of that granary, and the flour-mills 
were moved from Rochester to Minneapolis. This is an 
old story, but the same forces are still at work. There 
has been developed a world-market. The sheep of the 
Australian 'bush have become competitors of the flocks 
that feed upon the green Vermont mountains and the 
Ohio hills. The plains of Argentina grow wheat for 
London. Russia, Siberia, and India pour a constant 
stream of golden grain into the industrial centers of 
Western Europe, and the price of American wheat is 
fixed in London. These forces have produced still 
another kind of competition; namely, specialization 
among farmers. Localities particularly adapted to 
special crops are becoming centers where skill and in- 
telligence bring the industry to its height. The truck- 
farming of the South Atlantic region, the fruit-growing 
of western Michigan, the butter factories of Wisconsin 
and Minnesota, have crowded almost to suffocation the 
small market-gardener of the northern town, the man 



96 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

with a dozen peach trees, and the farmer who keeps two 
cows and trades the surplus butter for calico. These 
things have absolutely forced progress upon the farmer. 
It is indeed a "struggle for life." Out of it comes 
the "survival of the fittest," and the fittest is the new 
farmer. 

But along with competition has come opportunity. 
Indeed, out of these very facts that have made com- 
petition so strenuous spring the most marvelous oppor- 
tunities for the progressive farmer. Specialization 
brings out the best that there is in the locality and the 
man. It gives a chance to apply science to farming. 
Our transportation system permits the peach growers 
of Grand Rapids to place their crops at a profit in the 
markets of Buffalo and Pittsburg; the rich orchards 
and vineyards of Southern California find their chief 
outlet in the cities of the manufacturing Northeast — • 
three thousand miles away. During the forty years, 
from 1860, the exports of wheat from this country 
increased from four million bushels annually to one 
hundred and forty million bushels ; of corn, from three 
and one third million bushels to one hundred and 
seventy-five million bushels ; of beef products, from 
twenty million pounds to three hundred and seventy 
million pounds ; of pork products, from ninety-eight 
million pounds to seventeen hundred million pounds. 
And not only do the grain and stock farmers find this 
outlet for their surplus products, but we are beginning 
to ship abroad high-grade fruit and first-class dairy 
products in considerable quantities. Low rates of freight, 
modern methods of refrigeration, express freight trains, 
fast freight steamers — the whole machinery of the com- 



THE NEW FARMER 97 

■mercial and financial world are at the service of the new 
farmer. Science, also, has found a world of work in 
ministering to the needs of agriculture, and in a hundred 
different ways the new farmer finds helps that have 
sprung up from the broadcast sowing of the hand of 
science. 

But per'haps even more remarkable opportunities 
come to the new farmer in those social agencies that 
tend to remove the isolation of the country ; that assist 
in educating the farmer broadly ; that give farmers as a 
class more influence in legislature and congress ; and 
that, in fine, maike rural life more worth the living. The 
new farmer cannot be explained until one is some- 
what familiar with the character of these rural social 
agencies. 

It must not be supposed that every successful 
farmer is necessarily a supporter of all of these social 
agencies. He may be a prosperous farmer just because 
he is good at the art of farming, or because he is a keen 
business man. But more and more he is coming to see 
that these things are opportunities that he cannot 
afford to disregard. Indeed, some of these institutions 
are largely the creation of the new farmer himself. He 
is using them as tools to fashion a better rural social 
structure. 

But they also fashion him. They serve to explain 
him, in great part. Competition inspires the farmer to 
his best efforts. The opportunity offered by these new 
and growing advantages gives him the implements 
wherewith to make his rightful niche in the social and 
industrial system. 

It would be erroneous to suppose that the new farmer 



98 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

is a rara avis. He is not. The spirit pervading the 
ranks of farmers is rapidly changing. We have been 
in a state of transition in agriculture. But the farther 
shore has been reached and the bridge is possible. The 
army of rural advancement is being recruited with great 
rapidity. The advance guard is more than a body of 
scouts, it is an effective brigade. 

I want also to make a plea for the mossback. He 
must not be condemned utterly. Remember that com- 
petition among farmers has been intense; that rural 
environment breeds conservatism. Remember also that 
the farmer cannot change his methods as rapidly as can 
some other business men. Remember, too, that there is 
comparatively small chance for speculation in agri- 
culture; that large aggregates of capital cannot be 
collected for farming, and consequently, that the 
approved means for securing immense wealth, great 
industrial advancement, and huge enterprises are nearly 
absent in agriculture. Remember that the voices calling 
from the city deplete the country of many good farmers 
as well as many poor ones. Moreover, there are many 
men on farms who perhaps don't care for farming, but 
who for some reasons cannot get away. On the farm 
a man need not starve; he can make a livelihood. 
Doubtless this simple fact is responsible for a multitude 
of mossbacks. They can live without strenuous en- 
deavor. Possibly a good many of us are strenuous 
because we are pushed into it. So I have a good deal of 
sympathy for the mossback, and a mild sort of scorn 
for some of his critics, who probably could not do any 
better than he is doing if they essayed the gentle art of 
agriculture. I also have sympathy for the mossback 



THE NEW FARMER 99 

particulariy because he is the man that needs attention. 
The new farmer takes the initiative. He patronizes 
these opportunities that we have been talking about. 
But the mossback, because he is discouraged, or because 
he is ignorant, or perhaps merely because he is con- 
servative, takes little interest in these things. About 
one farmer in ten belongs to some sort of farmers* asso- 
ciation. Thousands of farmers do not take an agri- 
cultural paper, and perhaps millions of them have not 
read.an agricultural book. Right here comes In another 
fact'. Every "new" farmer when full grown competes 
with every mossback. The educated farmer makes it 
still harder for the ignorant farmer to progress. 

The future of the American farmer is one of the most 
pregnant social problems with which we have to deal. 
There is indeed an issue involved in the success of the 
new farmer that is still more fundamental than any yet 
mentioned. The old farmer had a social standing that 
made him essentially a middle-class man. He was a land- 
holder, he was independent, he was successful. He was 
the typical American citizen. The old farmer was 
father to the best blood of America. His sons and his 
sons' sons have answered to the roll call of our country's 
warriors, statesmen, writers, captains of industry. 

Can the new farmer maintain the same relative social 
status? And if he can, is he to be an aristocrat, a land- 
lord, a captain of industry, and to bear rule over the 
mossback? And is the tribe of mossbacks destined to 
increase and become a caste of permanent tenants or 
peasants? Is the future American farmer to be the 
typical new farmer of the present, or are we traveling 
toward a social condition in which the tillers of the soil 



100 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

will be underlings? Is there coming a time when the 
"man with the hoe" will be the true picture of the Amer- 
ican farmer, with a low standard of living, without 
ideals, without a chance for progress? 

We must eliminate the mossback. It is to be done 
largely by education and by cooperation. There must 
be a campaign for rural progress. There must be a 
union of tlie country school teacher, of the agricultural 
college professor, of the rural pastor, of the country 
editor, with the farmers themselves, for the production 
of an increased crop of new farmers. Anything that 
makes farm life more worth living, anything that 
banishes rural isolation, anything that dignifies the 
business of farming and makes it more prosperous, any- 
thing that broadens the farmer's horizon, anything that 
gives him a greater grasp of the rural movement, any- 
thing that makes him a better citizen, a better business 
man, or a better man, means the passing of the 
mossback. 



IX 

THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM * 

T. Bayard Collins 

"Back to the soil" was never a more attractive 
proposition and never so worthy of being heeded as 
during these opening years of the twentieth century. 
It is true that social economists have often uttered this 
cry because they believed, and rightly, that the over- 
crowded condition of cities could be relieved, to the 
immense advantage of everybody concerned, if the con- 
gested population found in sections of these human 
liives could be induced to leave their crowded quarters 
and become tillers of the soil. The advocates of the doc- 
trine have had in mind a more decent and desirable con- 
dition for the objects of their solicitude — a place where 
they could deve'lop a physical, social, and moral life 
superior to that which is possible to them in their 
present place of abode. The cry with which this opens, 
however, is not uttered especially to a crowded urban 
population. It is uttered to all men — to the inhabitants 
of every city, of whatever magnitude ; to the dwellers in 
villages and hamlets, and to those who are already on 
the land, that they may be contented to remain there. 
It is uttered to the dissatisfied of every condition of 
life, or to those who ought to be dissatisfied. It is the 

* From "The New Agriculture," by permission of the publishers, Munn 
and Company. 

101 



102 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

cry, not of social economists only, not only of preach- 
ers, teachers, and statesmen, as distinguished from 
politicians, but of seers, of men who look into the future 
and see the good things that are there and the better 
things that are coming. 

We are at the beginning of an era wonderful in the 
annals of agriculture; an era in which experiment and 
foresight and skill and invention and learning will 
transmute, as never before, the labor bestowed upon the 
land into wealth and health and happiness and length of 
days ; an era of progress and development as wonderful 
as any that has hitherto astounded the world in other 
departments of investigation and endeavor, in which 
agriculture will, for progress, take her stand side by 
side with the industry of shipbuilding, for instance, 
which has within a comparatively few years reduced the 
time for crossing the Atlantic from three months to less 
than twice that many days, and increased the carrying 
capacity of single vessels from a few hundreds to many 
thousands of tons ; by the side of railroading in which 
speed and safety and capacity has, in each succeeding 
year, laughed at the impossibilities of the year Just 
gone ; by the side of electrical development which, f ^:om 
a meager beginning of a generation ago, now renders us 
speechless in the presence of its phenomena of light and 
heat and power, and other manifestations still more 
subtle and marvelous. 

In agriculture, the great mass of mankind have not 
looked upon intelligence and mental training as of 
especial value. Too many have thought of farmers as 
men "whose talk was of oxen and whose employment was 
in their labors"; have thought of those "labors" as 



THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM 103 

being drudgery for the most part, and of financial 
returns so meager as to render farming utterly unat- 
tractive to any active man's contemplation. "By and 
by," said a philosopher of the last generation, "by and 
by it will be generally realized that few men live, or have 
lived, who could not find scope for all their intellect on 
a two-hundred-acre farm." Two score years have not 
yet gone since those words were uttered. To-day they 
are fulfilled. It is now generally known that agricul- 
ture offers an immense field for investigation and de- 
velopment by strictly scientific methods. Men of large 
business experience are going into it, and well-to-do 
professional men and merchants are taking it up as a 
feature of their summer life, finding in serious contact 
with the soil a worthy exercise of their highest faculties, 
and reaping from their labor a deilightful experience of 
things brought to pass. Those who are already on the 
farm have come to realize that the best mental equip- 
ment is none too good for the tillers of the soil. They 
have demanded schools and colleges and courses of in- 
struction for themselves and their sons which shall fit 
them to make of the farm a plant for the scientific and 
skilful production of all that it will yield. Statesmen 
and educators inculcated and fostered the same idea. 
Washington, a practical farmer, whose technical educa- 
tion was probably second to that of no man of his 
time in America, repeatedly brought to the attention of 
Congress the importance of providing adequate educa- 
tional facilities and other encouragements in agricul- 
ture. Partly out of these recommendations, but more 
immediately out of the seed distribution originated in 
the Department of State during the Presidency of John 



104 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Quincy Adams, sprang the United States Department 
of Agriculture, which in our day has attained such im- 
mense proportions, and the work of which is of such in- 
calculable profit and importance. The different states 
of the Union, seeing the importance of technical train- 
ing in the farming community, have provided colleges 
for this purpose, which now dot the land in all its sec- 
tions. These schools are surrounded with ample farms 
in which practical demonstration goes hand in hand 
with the theories taught and the facts acquired in the 
classroom ; they are provided with improved buildings, 
in many cases ideally adapted to the purposes for which 
they were constructed ; they are granted large means 
for the prosecution of their work; they are equipped 
with precise instruments and all paraphernalia requisite 
for the successful prosecution of scientific investigation ; 
and they are manned by scholarly and competent men 
who are imbued with the importance and the possibilities 
of their position. 

The progress in other lines of human activity has had 
its influence upon agriculture. If men have found 
secrets in the sea and in the stars and in the ether which 
fills the interstices between the atoms of the air as water 
might fill the space in a barrel of bullets, the soil also 
has been searched for its mysteries, and is being made to 
yield them, too, in a truly wonderful manner. Lands 
which were not only thought worthless, but which were 
reaUy so, are now made to bloom and blossom as the 
rose. Roads which were almost always bad, and at 
times impassable and considered impracticable of im- 
provement, are now transformed by the magic of mind 
and muscle into highways of profit and delight. Frosts 



THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM 105 

are defied by new varieties of fruits and grain which live 
and thrive and mature into money where their prede- 
cessors wilted and died under the blighting breath of 
a providence which they could not withstand, to the dis- 
couragement, and sometimes to the despair, of the hus- 
bandman. The cactus, that abundant but useless 
growth of the desert, has but recently been rendered a 
delicious fruit capable of being grown throughout the 
length and breadth of the continent, and not only has 
the noxious herb been transformed into a valuable food 
for man and beast, but the same skill and scientific 
treatment which has been efficacious for this amazing 
transformation has also removed the spines, those 
needles which formerly covered it and rendered it so 
difficult to handle. What has been done with the cactus 
is the adumbration and prophecy of what is, one might 
almost say, becoming general in the realm of agricul- 
ture. Alread}'- the seedless apple and the pitless plum 
and the stingless bee have been attained. Fruits have 
been developed for wliich a name had to be invented — 
the tangelo, for instance, which Adam did not find in 
all his rounds in the Garden of Eden, and which nature 
r.ever produced till a wizard of agriculture, Webber, 
waved his wand over the fruit trees of his farm and bid 
the thing appear. Burbank has more than doubled the 
size of various fruits and flowers and esculent roots, and 
^vdthin a considerable range finds himself able to change 
the colors of nature almost at will. Under his manipula- 
tion the white blackberry is now an accomplished fact, 
and he tells us that he will give us a blue rose as soon as 
he can spare the time to coax it into being. And we must 
remember that it is only recently that he has been given 



106 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the means and assistance that the dignity of his work 
deserves. It may not be said that Burbank is at the 
beginning of his career, but it is certain that the work 
which he has pointed out the way to perform will be 
carried forward by a great number of men, and that 
agriculture is but entering upon an era of development 
which will be as surprising as it will be profitable. 
Already the agricultural colleges of this and foreign 
lands and our own and foreign Agricultural Depart- 
ments through their various experiment stations are 
working along these and other original lines, and the 
wonderful, the helpful, and the profitable are being 
brought to light every day. The pests of his plants and 
the diseases of his animals which were once the terror of 
the farmer are now so subject to control and cure as to 
give him little more than passing concern. Information 
is now available regarding probable weather conditions 
which subserve both his convenience and his profit. 
Eighty millions of people in this country alone are 
backing the work of the Weather Bureau which sends 
its forecasts to the furthermost sections of the country, 
and rural deliveries and country telephone lines carry 
to millions of farmers these predictions, 85 per cent, of 
which come true. Our own Weather Bureau and those 
of other countries are studying climatic and weather 
conditions with an intelligence and enthusiasm never 
before displayed. The reasons for drouth and flood are 
being pried into with the same persistence that phy- 
sicians seek for the germ of a deadly disease, and the 
origin and prognosis of a hot wind will yet be as 
accurately determined as that of a fever. The upper 
air is being explored, and men are already knocking at 



THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM 107 

the home of the storm with the view of learning the 
secrets that lie hidden there. There are conservative 
data for believing that in the not distant future 
scientific forecasts of the weather will reach within 5 
per cent, of absolute accuracy and that they will be 
made for at least a season, and perhaps a year, in ad- 
vance. What will it mean when the Government fore- 
tells for our farmers, with 95 per cent, of fulfillment, for 
three months in advance, whether, in a given locality, 
the season is going to be early or late, hot or cold, wet 
or dry.^* 

Starch is now increased in corn and potatoes at will, 
sugar in beets and cane, and gluten in wheat. If the 
eggs from your poultry are too small for your liking 
they may be increased in size, and if there is not enough 
nitrogen in your soil you may sow it broadcast with 
bacteria at four cents an acre and these microscopic 
organisms will extract the needed element from the air 
and feed it to your plants. Is your land an alkali 
desert, you may obtain seeds and plants which will 
thrive even there and return you a profitable crop. Not 
only is drainage appreciated and applied to an extent 
never before attempted in this country, but drouth is 
being circumvented and defied, until, all in all, the un- 
certainties of the agriculturist are fewer than those 
of almost any other independent avocation. 

It is freely admitted that the farmer's life still 
involves much hard labor and anxious care ; that the 
elements may be against him, and that in one evil hour 
he may see the well-directed toil of months swept 
away ; that his animals are subject to ills which his most 
assiduous care will not cure ; insects and micro- 



108 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

organisms may blight and destroy his various growths 
of grain and fruit and root and deprive him, not only 
of his hope of abundance, but even of the most meager 
return for his labor. Men of wide observation and ex- 
perience strongly advise against undertaking the 
vocation of the farmer without at least $500 of 
capital to begin with, and this would seem to be little 
enough, but the day when a man might begin without a 
penny and yet succeed has by no means gone by. 
Doubtless, under such circumstances, success is more 
readily reached in some parts of the country than in 
others. Seven years ago there entered one of the counties 
of west-central Georgia a young man who said he was 
from Indiana. He was very poorly dressed, and his few 
belongings he carried on a stick over his shoulder. He 
never vouchsafed much information regarding himself, 
more than that he had come down on foot — his appear- 
ance indicated it — and that he had stopped there simply 
because he liked the country. He worked for a nursery- 
man during the first winter for his board and lodging. 
The next spring he was given a pittance for helping to 
put in the crops. Later he assisted in the cultivation 
of a neighboring farm, and so efficient did he prove that 
the whole county soon learned of his presence. He 
made a hand in the corn-pulling and the cotton-picking, 
and later found work with a ginner. During his first 
year he had been looked upon with some suspicion ; but 
so scrupulously had he conducted himself and so indus- 
trious and intelligent had he shown himself, that this 
feeling in regard to him was gradually disarmed. He 
applied for the position of teacher in the district school 
and got it. The term lasted six weeks, and he was three 



THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM 109 

months in collecting his pay. He married the daughter 
of the best educated man in the county, a preacher, and 
with his young wife, he settled upon a run-down rented 
farm. To-day he owns a hundred and forty acres of 
fertile land without a dollar of indebtedness, and is 
looked upon as one of the most prosperous and 
respected men in his section of the state. 

These results may doubtless be duplicated, but only 
by the same factors of character, industry, and intelli- 
gence. If a young man begins his married life without 
other means than those with which nature has endowed 
himself and his helpmeet — a good, clear mind and 
muscular arms — ^he must expect years of struggle, of 
frugality, of resolute, persistent industry before he can 
find an assured and ample income, seasons of ease and 
the surroundings of comparative luxury. On the farm 
much of the work is rugged and some of it repulsive. 
He will see other men no brighter, no more able than 
he — merchants, manufacturers, professional men — 
making money with apparent rapidity and ease while 
his savings are meager and hard earned. He must be 
moved by none of these things. He is not striving for 
another's success, but for his own. 

And there will, of course, be failures. The incom- 
petent, the shiftless, the indolent will fail. Those to 
whom farm life in general is distasteful, who do not like 
its solitude and who do not love nature, who can find no 
de'light in growing things and in the marvelous pro- 
cesses of season and soil and seed — to such the farm 
would be a weariness not to be endured and they had 
better seek a livelihood elsewhere. 

But even as we write the elements are being foretold. 



110 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

and as we shall see there are other means at the farmer's 
command for his protection against unfavorable atmos- 
pheric conditions, so that less and less are blizzard and 
flood and drouth to hazard the rewards of his toil. If it 
is suggested that labor on the land is sometimes repul- 
sive, we recall that the work of some of the professions 
is equally so — the physician, the nurse, the soldier, for 
instance. As for the difficulties that beset him in the 
diseases which afflict his cattle and his crops, these are 
yielding to the same applications of intelligence that 
are proving so efficacious in the treatment of the various 
diseases to which human flesh is heir. It is the fact of 
modern science successfully combating the discouraging 
and destructive factors in the farmer's occupation that 
gives vitality and persuasive power to the cry of the 
new gospel of agriculture, "Back to the soil." 

But aside from the fair promises and growing cer- 
tainties of the future in agriculture, there is no other 
calling in which success is anything like so nearly cer- 
tain as in this. Our most reliable statisticians estimated 
that ninety-five men failed where five succeeded in the 
pursuit of traffic and trade. This estimate may possibly 
be too high, but probably it is close to the facts. 
Failures in these walks of life are so frequent and con- 
stant that they would seem tragic but for the fact that 
for every man who fails another immediately takes his 
place, so that the wreckage is continually removed from 
view and the frightful accumulation of it is prevented 
from becoming an object of our contemplation. If a 
dozen men attempt to do business in merchandise and 
make money in a community which can support only 
three, it is certain that nine out of the twelve will fail. 



THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM 111 

There will be a period of fierce competition, more or less 
prolonged by the staying qualities of the men, their 
financial resources and power of will, but in the end 
nine men will fail and must fail. But you may double 
the number of farmers in any community whatsoever 
without dooming one of them to failure or appreciably 
affecting the profits which any one of them may reap as 
the reward of his toil. If the entire body of business 
and professional men who, in their present pursuits, are 
barely maintaining an existence — and there are thou- 
sands of them — should betake themselves to the soil to- 
morrow, the calling of agriculture would not be less 
profitable to those already engaged in it, while the 
entire population of the country would doubtless be 
greatly blessed and benefited. A competent business 
man or a wide-awake professional man may, by no fault 
of his own, be starved out of a given locality, but 
probably no one ever heard of an intelligent, energetic, 
and frugal farmer who failed to make a comfortable 
living; and, unless disabled by disease or accident, such 
factors have usually secured for him who exercised 
them an independent income, albeit, perhaps, a modest 
one, before age and decrepitude deprived him of his 
ability to labor. 

To whatever extent false ideals may have driven out 
the true in other avenues of life, however widely money 
and power may have come to be accepted as the most 
desirable things in the world, and however high the 
social standing attained and maintained by those who 
in the pursuit of these things have perjured themselves 
and robbed and ruined their fellows under forms of law 
whereby they are saved from the arrest, trial, and im- 



112 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

prisonment which they so justly deserve, the founda- 
tions of God stand sure, and when truth is lost and 
honor dies the man is dead. The young doctor must 
have bread and is often tempted to the practice of a 
quackery he despises, and which at the beginning must 
be loathsome to him. Later in life, when the habit has 
become second nature, it is not bread, but money, more 
money, which constrains him, and thus his character 
may become crystallized into a hateful form. The same 
process may operate in the lawyer. To the first "dirty" 
professional job, he may drive himself against all his 
finer feelings. It may seem to him a necessity that he 
do "this thing." The second job will be less distasteful, 
though it may be equally "dirty," and in this manner 
may he also be led to part with his priceless heritage of 
h.'inor. These observations are true to a larger or less 
extent of every line of gainful endeavor, with but one 
exception. Where they occur some men yield not at all, 
some yield reluctantly, and still others are made ready 
by heredity to perform the ignoble and the mean ; but 
the agriculturist, so far as his dealing is with the soil, 
is subject to none of these temptations. Here integrity 
— absolute honesty — is his sole reliance. He deals here 
with Nature and her laws direct, and she is to be neither 
cheated nor befooled. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap," while true of all men eventually, is 
obviously and evidently true for the husbandman at 
once. When he seeks to dispose of that which he has har- 
vested, when he ceases from the strict work of the agri- 
culturist and becomes a tradesman, there may then come 
the temptation to trickery ; but so long as his dealings 
are with the soil, instead of offering the slightest induce- 



THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM 113 

ment to substitute one thing for another that he may 
reap an unearned advantage, he finds that the behests 
and encouragements of Nature are all and always on 
the side of that which is recognized in the last analysis 
to be most worthy in man — truth, righteousness, and 
rectitude. 

There is probably no other calling which is so con- 
ducive of thoroughgoing manliness as that of fanning. 
Nobody expects the farmer to cringe or try to curry 
favor. In other words, he is, and is recognized to be, 
the overlord of his own life. He is never tempted to hide 
his opinions in the hope of more successfully dealing 
with his fellow men, nor is he fearful that, if outspoken, 
he may discount his prospects of prosperity. He may 
be orthodox or heterodox as to his religion : Republican, 
Democrat, Prohibitionist, or Socialist as to his politics : 
he may hold and teach absolutely any sane conviction 
at which he has arrived, but neither Nature with whom 
he deals on the one hand, nor the markets with which 
he has to do on the other, will take the slightest cog- 
nizance of any of these things. Nature asks only that 
he be intelligent and industrious ; and the markets only 
that his offerings be of intrinsic value. Agriculture is 
rapidly coming to be one of the few callings in which 
the individual man may be himself, think and express his 
own thoughts, carry out his own policies, shape his own 
life, and wield with his might all the powers that he feels 
lie latent within him. In almost every other vocation in 
life the man is hampered and hindered and perhaps 
denied the exercise of his most profound convictions. If 
the place he occupies is an humble one, so much the 
worse; but even though he occupy an exalted position 



114 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

which carries with it large remuneration, he finds always 
in attempting to carry out his policies, however vital he 
may feel these policies to be, that there are other men, 
equals, in the employ of the same company, superiors, 
possibly, who must be consulted and argued with ; that 
often his desires, his strong convictions even, must be 
shaped and shorn, and not unfrequently that they are 
entirely aborted. Jealousies are ever present to defeat 
his ends and embitter his life. Presidents and vice- 
presidents of great corporations are often under the 
restraint of influential stockholders. In political life 
it is even worse. High officers, governors of states, and 
mayors of great cities must frequentl}' be deaf to the 
reasonable complaints of a long-suffering public, stifling 
at the same time their own personal convictions, and be 
blind to the misdeeds of the heads of departments who 
are ostensibly subject to, but are in fact contemptuously 
independent of, the chief executive. He must all too 
frequently grovel to his political boss and stand before 
the people as in the plentitude of power while sub- 
mitting to the most humiliating dictation from the rear. 
Who shall say to the farmer, "Plant this field with 
corn" when in his judgment it should be planted with 
some other grain, or should not be planted at all? Who 
may dictate to him In any other particular? He may 
be proudly aware that no one expects him to confess 
any creed or maintain any view that Is not in accordance 
with his deepest convictions. Nor has he to yield to the 
opinions or to defer to the prejudices or placate the 
jealousies of any man or of any set of men, save only 
as the spirit of a broad humanity may lead him in the 
paths of peace. His tolerance and self-restraint may 



THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM 115 

be exercised without the sacrifice of a jot or tittle of his 
self-respect, without the impairment of his dignity or 
the deprivation of the consciousness that he is essen- 
tially a gentleman. 

There is not a section of the broad land which docs 
not to-day offer its own particular inducements to the 
agriculturist. The middle North, while still wonderfully 
attractive, no longer holds a monopoly of good things, 
either in lands or produce. There are farming oppor- 
tunities in the East which are as attractive to-day as 
the West offered twenty-five years ago. The South is a 
veritable Promised Land. The stories of the Far West 
and Northwest seem romantic in spite of their known 
truth and soberness. 

It is the new era in agriculture that has rendered 
possible the reaping from the farms of this country the 
unthinkable sum of six and one half billions of dollars 
within the year. These profits, even distributed through- 
out the farming population, are rapidly making for a 
condition of well-being unsurpassed by any other class 
of the citizenship. The social life of the farm is im- 
measurably more attractive than ever before, and the 
improved school facilities, the labor-saving machinery, 
the rural delivery of mails, the fine roads, the county 
and inter-county telephone lines are daily adding to the 
enticing features of the farmer's life. 



X 

THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS* 

Kenyon L. Butterfield 

It is impossible to acquire a keen and permanent 
interest in the rural problem unless one first of all is 
cognizant of its significance. And lack of knowledge at 
this point may in part account for the fact already 
alluded to that in America the farm problem has not 
been adequately studied. So stupendous has been the 
development of our manufacturing industries, so mar- 
velous the growth of our ur'ban population, so pressing 
the questions raised by modern city life, that the social 
and economic interests of the American farmer have, as 
a rule, received minor consideration. We are impressed 
with the rise of cities like Chicago, forgetting for the 
moment that half of the American people still live under 
rural conditions. We are perplexed by the labor wars 
that are waged about us, for the time unmindful that 
one third of the workers of this country make their 
living immediately from the soil. We are astounded, 
and perhaps alarmed, at the great centralization of 
capital, possibly not realizing that the capital invested 
in agriculture in the United States nearly equals the 
combined capital invested in the manufacturing and 
railway industries. But if we pause to consider the 

* From "Chapters in Rural Progress," by permission of the pablishers, 
University of Chicago Press. 

116 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 117 

scope and nature of the economic and social interests 
involved, we cannot avoid the conclusion that the farm 
problem is worthy of serious thought from students of 
our national welfare. 

We are aware that agriculture does not hold the same 
relative rank among our industries that it did in former 
years, and that our city population has increased far 
more rapidly than has our rural population. We do 
not ignore the fact that urban industries are developing 
more rapidly than is agriculture, nor deny the serious- 
ness of the actual depletion of rural population, and 
even of community decadence, in some portions of the 
Union. But these facts merely add to the importance 
of the farm question. And it should not be forgotten 
that there has been a large and constant growth both 
of our agricultural wealth and of our rural population. 
During the last half-century there was a gain of 500 
per cent, in the value of farm property, while the non- 
ur^ban population increased 250 per cent. Agriculture 
has been one of the chief elements of America's indus- 
trial greatness, it is still our dominant economic inter- 
est, and it will long remain at least a leading industry. 
The people of the farm have furnished a sturdy citizen- 
ship and have been the primary source of much of our 
best leadership in political, business, and professional 
life. For an indefinite future, a large proportion of 
the American people will continue to live in a rural 
environment. 

Current agricultural discussion would lead us to 
think that the farm problem is largely one of technicjue. 
The possibilities of the agricultural industry, in the 
light of applied science, emphasize the need of the 



118 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

farmer for more complete knowledge of soil and plant 
and animal, and for increased proficiency in utilizing 
this knowledge to secure greater production at less cost. 
This is a fundamental need. It lies at the basis of 
success in farming. But it is not the farm problem. 

Business skill must be added, business methods en- 
forced. The farmer must be not only a more skilful 
produce-grower, but also a keener produce-seller. But 
the moment we enter the realm of the market we step 
outside the individualistic aspect of the problem as em- 
bodied in the current doctrine of technical agricultural 
teaching, and are forced to consider the social aspect as 
emphasized, first of all, in the economic category of 
price. Here we find many factors — transportation cost, 
general market conditions at home and abroad, the 
status of other industries, and even legislative activities. 
The farm problem becomes an industrial question, not 
solely one of technical and business skill. Moreover, the 
problem is one of a successful industry as a whole, not 
merely the personal successes of even a respectable 
number of individual farmers. The farming class must 
progress as a unit. 

But have we yet reached the heart of the question.'' 
Is the farm problem one of technique plus ^business skill, 
plus these broad economic considerations.'' Is it not 
perfectly possible that agriculture as an industry may 
remain in a fairly satisfactory condition, and yet the 
farming class fail to maintain its status in the general 
social order? Is it not, for instance, quite within the 
bounds of probability to imagine a good degree of 
economic strength in the agricultural industry existing 
side by side with either a peasant regime or a landlord- 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 119 

and-tenant system? Yet would we expect from either 
system the same social fruitage that has been har- 
vested from our American yeomanry? 

We conclude, then, that the farm problem, consists in 
maintaining upon our farm^s a class of people who have 
succeeded in procuring for themselves the highest pos- 
sible class status, not only in the industrial, but in the 
political and the social order — a relative status, more- 
over, that is measured by the demands of American 
ideals, Tlie farm problem thus connects itself with the 
whole question of democratic civilization. This is not 
mere platitude. For we cannot properly judge the 
significance and the relation of the different industrial 
activities of our farmers, and especially the value of 
the various social agencies for rural betterment, except 
by the standard of class status. It is here that we 
seem to find the only satisfactory philosophy of rural 
progress. 

We would not for a moment discredit the funda- 
mental importance of movements that have for their 
purpose the improved technical skill of our farmers, 
better business management of the farm, and wiser 
study and control of market conditions. Indeed, we 
would call attention to the fact that social institutions 
are absolutely necessary means of securing these essen- 
tial factors of industrial success. In the solution of the 
farm problem we must deliberately invoke the influence 
of quickened means of communication, of cooperation 
among farmers, of various means of education, and pos- 
sibly even of religious institutions, to stimulate and 
direct industrial activity. What needs present emphasis 
is the fact that there is a definite, real, social end to be 



120 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

held in view as the goal of rural endeavor. The highest 
possible social status for the farming class is that end. 

We may now, as briefly as possible, describe some of 
the difficulties that lie in the path of the farmers in their 
ambition to attain greater class efficiency and larger 
class influence, and some of the means at hand for 
minimizing the difficulties. A complete discussion of 
the farm problem should, of course, include thorough 
consideration of the technical, the 'business, and the 
economic questions implied by the struggle for indus- 
trial success ; for industrial success is prerequisite to 
the achievement of the greatest social power of the 
farming class. But we shall consider only the social 
aspects of the problem. 

Perhaps the one great underlying social difficulty 
among American farmers is their comparatively isolated 
mode of life. The farmer's family is isolated from other 
families. A small city of perhaps twenty thousand 
population will contain from four hundred to six hun- 
dred families per square mile, whereas a typical agri- 
cultural community in a prosperous agricultural state 
will 'hardly average more than ten families per square 
mile. The farming class is isolated from other classes. 
Farmers, of course, mingle considerably in a business 
and political way with the men of their trading town 
and county seat ; but, broadly speaking, farmers do not 
associate freely with people living under urban con- 
ditions and possessing other than the rural point of 
view. It would be venturesome to suggest very definite 
generalizations with respect to the precise influence of 
these conditions, because, so far as the writer is aware, 
the psychology of isolation has not been worked out. 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 121 

But two or three conclusions seem to be admissible, and 
for that matter rather generally accepted. 

The well-known conservatism of the farming class is 
doubtless largely due to class isolation. Habits, ideas, 
traditions, and ideals have long life in the rural com- 
munity. Changes come slowly. There is a tendency to 
tread the well-worn paths. The farmer does not easily 
keep in touch with rapid modern development, unless 
the movements or methods directly affect him. Phys- 
ical agencies which improve social conditions, such as 
electric lights, telephones, and pavements, come to the 
city first. The atmosphere of the country speaks peace 
and quiet. Nature's routine of sunshine and storm, of 
summer and winter, encourages routine and repetition 
in the man who works with her. 

A complement of this rural conservatism, which at 
first thought seems a paradox, but which probably 
grows out of these same conditions of isolation, is the 
intense radicalism of a rural community when once it 
breaks away from its moorings. Many farmers are un- 
duly suspicious of others' motives ; yet the same people 
often succumb to the wiles of the charlatan, whether 
medical or political. Farmers are usually conservative 
in politics and intensely loyal to party ; but the Populist 
movement indicates the tendency to extremes when the 
old allegiance is left behind. Old methods of farming 
may be found alongside ill-considered attempts to raise 
new crops or to utilize untried machines. 

Other effects of rural isolation are seen in a class 
provincialism that is hard to eradicate, and in the de- 
velopment of minds less alert to seize business ad- 
vantages and less far-sighted than are developed by the 



122 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

intense industrial life of the town. There is time to 
brood over wrongs, real and imaginary. Personal 
prejudices often grow to be rank and coarse-fibered. 
Neighborhood feuds are not uncommon and are often 
virulent. Leadership is made difficult and sometimes 
impossible. It is easy to fall into personal habits that 
may mark off the farmer from other classes of similar 
intelligence, and that bar him from his rightful social 
place. 

I It would, however, be distinctly unfair to the farm 
community if we did not emphasize some of the ad- 
vantages that grow out of the rural mode of life. Farm- 
ers have time to think, and the typical American 
farmer is a man who has thought much and often 
deeply. A spirit of sturdy independence is generated, 
and freedom of will and of action is encouraged. Family 
life is nowhere so educative as in the country. The 
whole family cooperates for common ends, and in its 
individual members are bred the qualities of industry, 
patience, and perseverance. The manual work of the 
schools is but a makeshift for the old-fashioned train- 
ing of the country-grown boy. Country life is an ad- 
mirable preparation for the modem industrial and pro- 
fessional career. 

Nevertheless, rural isolation is a real evil. Present- 
day living is so distinctively social, progress is so de- 
pendent upon social agencies, social development is so 
rapid, that if the farmer is to keep his status he must 
be fully in step with the rest of the army. He must 
secure the social viewpoint. The disadvantages of 
rural isolation are largely in the realm of the social 
relations, its advantages mostly on the individual and 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 123 

moral side. Farm life makes a strong individual ; it is 
a serious menace to the achievement of class power. 

A cure for isolation sometimes suggested is tlie 
gathering of the farmers into villages. This remed}', 
however, is of doubtful value. In the first place, tlic 
scheme is not immediately practicable. About three 
and one half billions of dollars are now invested in farm 
buildings, and it will require some motive more powerful 
than that inspired by academic logic to transfer, even 
gradually, this investment to village groups. ^Morc- 
over, it is possible to dispute the desirability of the 
remedy. The farm village at best must be a mere 
hamlet. It can secure for the farmer very few of the 
urban advantages he may want, except that of per- 
mitting closer daily intercourse between families. And 
it is questionable if the petty society of such a village 
can compensate for the freedom and purity of rural 
family life now existing. It may even be asserted with 
some degi'ee of positiveness that the small village, on 
the moral and intellectual sides, is distinctly inferior 
to the isolated farm homiC. 

At the present time rural isolation in America is 
being overcome by the development of better means of 
communication among farmers who still live on their 
farms. So successful are these means of communication 
proving that we cannot avoid the conclusion that herein 
lies the remedy. Improved wagon roads, the rural free 
mail delivery, the farm telephone, trolley lines through 
country districts, are bringing about a positive revolu- 
tion in country living. They are curing the evils of 
isolation, without in the slightest degree robbing the 
farm of its manifest advantages for family life. The 



124< ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

farmers are being welded into a more compact society. 
They are being nurtured to greater alertness of mind, 
to greater keenness of oibservation, and the foundations 
are being laid for vastly enlarged social activities. The 
problem now is to extend these advantages to every 
rural community — in itself a task of huge proportions. 
If this can be done and isolation can be reduced to a 
minimum, the solution of all the other rural social 
problems will become vastly easier. 

Organization is one of the pressing social problems 
that American farmers have to face. The importance 
of the question is intrinsic, because of the general social 
necessity for cooperation which characterizes modern 
life. Society is becoming consciously self-directive. 
The immediate phase of this growing self-direction lies 
in the attempts of various social groups to organize 
their powers for group advantage. And if, as seems 
probable, this group activity is to remain a dominant 
feature of social progress, even in a fairly coherent 
society, it is manifest that there will result more or less 
of competition among groups. 

The farming class, if at all ambitious for group In- 
fluence, can hardly avoid this tendency to organization. 
Farmers, indeed more than any other class, need to or- 
ganize. Their isolation makes thorough organization 
especially imperative. And the argument for cooper- 
ation gains force from the fact that relatively the agri- 
cultural population is declining. In the old days farm- 
ers ruled because of mere mass. That is no longer 
possible. The naive statement that "farmers must or- 
ganize because other classes are organizing" is really 
good social philosophy. 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 125 

In the group competition just referred to there is a 
tendency for class interests to be put above general 
social welfare. This is a danger to be avoided in or- 
ganization, not an argument against it. So the farmers' 
organization should be guarded, at this point, by ad- 
herence to the principle that organization must not only 
develop class power, but must be so directed as to permit 
the farmers to lend the full strength of their class to 
general social progress. 

Organization thus becomes a test of class efficienc}', 
and consequently a prerequisite for solving the farm 
problem. Can the farming class secure and maintain a 
fairly complete organization? Can it develop efficient 
leaders.'' Can it announce, in sound terms, its proposed 
group policy? Can it lend the group influence to 
genuine social progress? If so, the organization of 
farmers becomes a movement of preeminent importance. 

Organization, moreover, is a powerful educational 
force. It arouses discussion of fundamental questions, 
diffuses knowledge, gives practice in public affairs, 
trains individuals in executive work, and in fine, stim- 
ulates, as nothing else can, a class which is in special 
need of social incentive. 

Organization is, however, difficult of accomplishment. 
While it would take us too far afield to discuss the his- 
tory of farmers' organizations in America, we may 
briefly suggest some of the difficulties involved. For 
forty years the question has been a prominent one 
among the farmers, and these years have seen the rise 
and decline of several large associations. There have 
been apparently two great factors contributing to the 
downfall of these organizations. The first was a mis- 



126 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

apprehensiofi, on the part of the farmers, of the feasibil 
ity of organizing themselves as a poHtical phalanx ; the 
second, a sentimental belief in the possibilities of busi- 
ness cooperation among farmers, more especially in 
lines outside their vocation. There is no place for class 
politics in America. There are some things legislation 
cannot cure. There are serious limitations to cooper- 
ative endeavor. It took many hard experiences for our 
farmers to learn these truths. But back of all lie some 
inherent difficulties, as, for instance, the number of 
people involved, their Isolation, sectional interests, in- 
grained habits of independent action, of individual 
initiative, of suspicion of others' motives. There is 
often lack of pei'spective, and unwillingness to invest in 
a procedure that does not promise immediate returns. 
The mere fact of failure has discredited the organiza- 
tion idea. There is lack of leadership ; for the farm in- 
dustry, while it often produces men of strong mind, 
keen perception, resolute will, does not, as a rule, de- 
velop executive capacity for large enterprises. 

It is frequently asserted that farmers are the only 
class that has not organized. This is not strictly true. 
The difficulties enumerated are real difficulties and have 
seriously retarded farm organization. But if the 
progress made is not satisfactory, it is at least encour- 
aging. On the purely business side, over five thousand 
cooperative societies among American farmers have 
been reported. In cooperative buying of supplies, 
cooperative selling of products, and cooperative insur- 
ance, the volume of transactions reaches large figures. 
A host of societies of a purely educational nature exists 
among stock-breeders, fruit-growers, dairymen. It is 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 127 

true that no one general organization of farmers, em- 
bracing a large proportion of the class, has as yet been 
perfected. The nearest approach to it is the Grange, 
which, contrary to a popular notion, is in a prosperous 
condition, with a really large influence upon the social, 
financial, educational, and legislative interests of the 
farming class. It has had a steady growth during the 
past ten years, and is a quiet 'but powerful factor in 
rural progress. The Grange is perhaps too conserva- 
tive in its administrative policy. It has not at least 
succeeded in converting to its fold the farmers of the 
great Mississippi Valley. But it has workable ma- 
chinery, it disavows partisan politics and selfish class 
interests, and it subordinates financial benefits, while 
emphasizing educational and broadly political ad- 
vantages. It seems fair to interpret the principles of 
the Grange as wholly in line with the premise of this 
paper, that the farmers need to preserve their status, 
politically, industrially, and socially, and that organi- 
zation is one of the fundamental methods they must use. 
The Grange, therefore, deserves to succeed, and indeed 
is succeeding. i 

The field of agricultural organization is an extensive 
one. But if the farm problem is to be solved satisfac- 
torily, the American farmers must first secure reason- 
ably complete organization. 

It is hardly necessary to assert that the education of 
that portion of the American people who live upon the 
land involves a question of the greatest significance. 
The subject naturally divides itself into two phases, 
one of which may be designated as rural education 
proper, the other as agricultural education. Rural 



128 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

education has to do with the education of people, more 
especially of the young, who live under rural con- 
ditions ; agricultural education aims to prepare men 
and women for the specific vocation of agriculture. 
The rural school typifies the first ; the agricultural 
school the second. Rural education is but a section of 
the general school question ; agricultural education is a 
branch of technical training. These two phases of the 
education of the farm population meet at many points, 
they must work in harmony, and together they form a 
distinct educational problem. 

The serious diflliculties in the rural school question 
are perhaps three: first, to secure a modern school, in 
efficiency somewhat comparable to the town school, 
without unduly increasing the school tax ; second, so to 
enrich the curriculum and so to expand the functions 
of the school that tlie school shall become a vital and 
coherent part of the community life, on the one hand 
translating the rural environment into terms of charac- 
ter and mental efficiency, and on the other hand serving 
perfectly as a stepping-stone to the city schools and 
to urban careers ; third, to provide adequate high- 
school facilities in the rUral community. 

The centralization of district schools and the trans- 
portation of pupils will probably prove to be more 
nearly a solution of all these difficulties than will any 
other one scheme. The plan permits the payment of 
higher wages for teachers and ought to secure better 
instruction ; it permits the employment of special 
teachers, as for nature-study or agriculture; it in- 
creases the efficiency of superintendence ; it costs but 
little, if any, more than the district system ; it leaves 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 129 

the school amid rural surroundings, while introducing 
into the schoolroom itself a larger volume, so to speak, 
of world-atmosphere; it contains possibilities for com- 
munity service ; it can easily be expanded into a high 
school of reputable grade. 

There are two dangers, both somewhat grave, likely 
to arise from an urgent campaign for centralization. 
Even if the movement makes as great progress as could 
reasonably be expected, for a generation to come a large 
share, if not a major portion, of rural pupils will still 
be taught in the small, isolated, district school; there 
is danger that this district school may be neglected. 
Moreover, increased school machinery always invites 
undue reliance upon machine-like methods. Centraliza- 
tion permits, but does not guarantee, greater efficiency. 
A system like this one must be vitalized by constant and 
close touch with the life and needs and aspirations of 
the rural community itself. 

Whenever centralization is not adopted, the consoli- 
dation of two or three schools — a modified form of 
centralization — may prove helpful. Where the district 
school stiU persists, there are one or two imperative re- 
quirements. Teachers must have considerably higher 
wages and longer tenure. There must be more efficient 
supervision. The state must assist in supporting the 
school, although only in part. The small schools must 
be correlated with some form of high school. The last 
point is of great importance because of the comparative 
absence in country communities of opportunity near at 
hand for good high-school training. 

Agricultural education is distinctively technical, not 
in the restricted sense of mere technique, or even of 



130 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

applied science, but in the sense that it must be frankly 
vocational. It has to do with the preparation of men 
and women for the business of farming and for life in 
the rural community. 

Agricultural education should begin in the primary 
school. In this school the point of view, however, should 
be broadly pedagogical rather than immediately voca- 
tional. Fortunately, the wise teaching of nature-studj', 
the training of pupils to know and to love nature, the 
constant illustrations from the rural environment, the 
continual appeal to personal observation and experi- 
ence, absolute loyalty to the farm point of view, are 
not only sound pedagogy, but form the best possible 
background for future vocational study. Whether 
we call this early work *'nature-study" or call it 
"agriculture" matters less than that the fundamental 
principle be recognized. It must first of all educate. 
The greatest difficulty in introducing such work into 
the primary school is to secure properly equipped 
teachers. 

Perhaps the most stupendous undertaking in agri- 
cultural education is the adequate development of sec- 
ondary education in agriculture. The overwhelming 
majority of young people who secure any agricultural 
schooling whatever must get it in institutions that 
academically are of secondary grade. This is a hugf 
task. If developed to supply existing needs, it will call 
for an enormous expenditure of money and for the 
most careful planning. From the teaching viewpoint 
it is a difficult problem. Modern agriculture is based 
upon the sciences ; it will not do, therefore, to establish 
schools in the mere art of farming. But these agri- 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 131 

cultural high schools must deal with pupils who are 
comparatively immature, and who almost invariably 
liave had no preparation in science. Nor should the 
courses at these schools be ultra-technical. They are to 
prepare men and women for life on the farm — men and 
women who are to lead in rural development, and who 
nmst get some inkling at least of the real farm question 
and its solution. The agricultural school, therefore, 
presents a problem of great difficulty. 

A perennial question in agricultural education is: 
What is the function of the agricultural college.'' We 
have not time to trace the history of these colleges, nor 
to elaborate the various views relative to their mission. 
But* let us for a moment discuss their proper function 
in the light of the proposition that the preservation of 
the farmers' status is the real farn> problem ; for the 
college can be justified only as it finds its place among 
the social agencies helpful in the solution of the farm 
question. 

In so far as the agricultural college, through its ex- 
periment station or otherwise, is an organ of research, 
it should carry its investigations into the economic and 
sociological fields, as well as pursue experiments in soil 
fertility and animal nutrition. 

In the teaching of students, the agricultural college 
will continue the important work of training men for 
agricultural research, agricultural teaching, and expert 
supervision of various agricultural enterprises. But 
the college should put renewed emphasis upon its abil- 
ity to send well-trained men to the farms, there to live 
their lives, there to find their careers, and there to lead 
in the movements for rural progress. A decade ago it 



132 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

was not easy to find colleges which believed that this 
could be done, and some agricultural educators have 
even disavowed such a purpose as a proper object of 
the colleges. But the strongest agricultural colleges to- 
day have pride in just such a purpose. And why not? 
We not only need men thus trained as leaders in every 
rural community, but, if the farming business cannot be 
made to offer a career to a reasonable number of college- 
trained men, it is a sure sign that only by the most 
herculean efforts can the farmers maintain their status 
as a class. If agriculture must be tui*ned over wholly 
to the untrained and to the half-trained, if it cannot 
satisfy the ambition of strong, well-educated men and 
women, its future, from the social point of view, is in- 
deed gloomy. 

The present-day course of study in the agricultural 
college does not, however, fully meet this demand for 
rural leadership. The farm problem has been regarded 
as a technical question, and a technical training has 
been offered the student. The agricultural college, 
therefore, needs "socializing." Agricultural economics 
and rural sociology should occupy a large place in the 
curriculum. The men who go from the college to the 
farm should appreciate the significance of the agricul- 
tural question, and should be trained to organize their 
forces for genuine rural progress. The college should, 
as far as possible, become the leader in the whole move- 
ment for solving the farm problem. 

The farm home has not come in for its share of at- 
tention in existing schemes of agricultural education. 
The kitchen and the dining-room have as much to gain 
from science as have the dairy and the orchard. The 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 133 

inspiration of vocational knowledge must be the posses- 
sion of her who is the entrepreneur of the family, the 
home-maker. The agricultural colleges through their 
departments of domestic science — ^better, of "home- 
making" — should inaugurate a comprehensive move- 
ment for carrying to the farm home a larget measure 
of the advantages which modern science is showering 
upon humanity. 

The agricultural college must also lead in a more 
adequate development of extension teaching. Magnifi- 
cent work has already been done through farmers' 
institutes, reading courses, cooperative experiments, 
demonstrations, and correspondence. But the field is 
so immense, the number of people involved so enormous, 
the difficulties of reaching them so many, that it offers a 
genuine problem, and one of peculiar significance, not 
only because of the generally recognized need of adult 
education, but also because of the isolation of the 
farmers. 

It should be said that in no line of rural betterment 
has so much progress been made in America as in agri- 
cultural education. Merel}"^ to describe the work that is 
being done through nature-study and agriculture in the 
public schools, through agricultural schools, through 
our magnificent agricultural colleges, through farmers' 
institutes, and especially through the experiment sta- 
tions and the Federal Department of Agriculture in 
agricultural research and in the distribution of the 
best agricultural information — merely to inventory 
these movements properly would take the time available 
for this discussion. What has been said relative to agri- 
cultural education is less in way of criticism of existing 



134 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

methods than in way of suggestion as to fundamental 
needs. 

Wide generalizations as to the exact moral situation 
in the rural community are impossible. Conditions have 
not been adequately studied. It is probably safe to say 
that the country environment is extremely favorable 
for pure family life, for temperance, and for bodily and 
mental health. To picture the country a paradise is, 
however, mere silliness. There are in the country, as 
elsewhere, evidences of vulgarity in language, of coarse- 
ness in thought, of social impurity, of dishonesty in 
business. There is room in the country for all the 
ethical teaching that can be given. 

Nor is it easy to discuss the country church question. 
Conditions vary in different parts of the Union, and no 
careful study has been made of the problem. As a gen- 
eral proposition, it may be said that there are too many 
churches in the country, and that these are illy sup- 
ported. Consequently, they have in many cases in- 
ferior ministers. Sectarianism is probably more divisive 
than in the city, not only because of the natural con- 
servatism of the people and a natural disinclination to 
change their views, but because sectarian quarrels are 
perhaps more easily fomented and less easily harmonized 
than anywhere else. Moreover, in the city a person can 
usually find a denomination to his liking. In the coun- 
try, even with the present overchurched condition, this 
is difficult. 

The ideal solution of the country church problem is 
to have in each rural community one strong church 
adequately supported, properly equipped, ministered 
to by an able man — a church which leads in community 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 135 

service. The path to the realization of such an ideal is 
rough and thorny. Church federation, however, 
promises large results in this direction and should be 
especially encouraged. 

Whatever outward form the solution of the country 
church question may take, there seem to be several gen- 
eral principles involved in a satisfactory attempt to 
meet the issue. In tlie first place, the country church 
offers a problem by itself, socially considered. Methods 
successful in the city may not succeed in the country. 
The country church question must then be studied thor- 
oughly and on the ground. 

Again, the same principle of financial aid to be 
utilized in the case of the schools must be invoked here. 
The wealth of the whole church must contribute to the 
support of the church everywhere. The strong must 
help the weak. The city must help the country. But 
this aid must be given by cooperation, not by con- 
descension. The demand cannot be met by home mis- 
sionary effort nor by church-building contributions ; the 
principle goes far deeper than that. Some device must 
be secured which binds together the whole church, along 
denominational lines if must be, for a full development 
of church work in every community in the land. 

Furthermore, there is supreme necessity for adding 
dignity to the country parish. Too often at present the 
rural parish is regarded either as a convenient labora- 
tory for the clerical novice, or as an asylum for the 
decrepit or inefficient. The country parish must be a 
parish for our ablest and strongest. The ministry of 
the most Christlike must be to the hill-towns of Galilee 
as well as to Jerusalem. 



136 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

There is still another truth that the country church 
cannot afford to ignore. The rural church question is 
peculiarly interwoven with the industrial and social 
problems of the farm. A declining agriculture cannot 
foster a growing church. An active church can render 
especially strong service to a farm community, in its 
influence upon the religious life, the home life, the edu- 
cational life, the social life, and even upon the industrial 
life. Nowhere else are these various phases of society's 
activities so fully members one of another as in the 
country. The country church should cooperate with 
other rural social agencies. This means that the coun- 
try pastor should assume a certain leadership in move- 
ments for rural progress. He is splendidly fitted, by the 
nature of his work and by his position in the community, 
to cooperate with earnest farmers for the social and 
economic, as well as the moral and spiritual, upbuilding 
of the farm community. But he must know the farm 
problem. Here is an opportunity for theological semi- 
naries : let them make rural sociology a required sub- 
ject. And, better, here is a magnificent field of labor 
for the right kind of young men. The country pastorate 
may thus prove to be, as it ought to be, a place of 
honor and rare privilege. In any event, the country 
church, to render its proper service, not alone must 
minister to the individual soul, but must throw itself 
into the struggle for rural betterment, must help solve 
the farm problem. 

The suggestion that the country church should ally 
itself with other agencies of rural progress may be car- 
ried a step further. Rural social forces should be fed- 
erated. The object of such federation is to emphasize 



THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 137 

the real nature of the farm problem, to interest many 
people in its solution, and to secure the cooperation of 
the various rural social agencies, each of which has its 
sphere, but also its limitations. The method of fed- 
eration is to bring together, for conference and for 
active work, farmers — especially representatives of 
farmers' organizations, agricultural educators, rural 
school-teachers and supervisors, country clergymen, 
country editors ; in fact, all who have a genuine interest 
in the farm problem. Thus will come clearer views of 
the questions at issue, broader plans for reform, greater 
incentive to action, and more rapid progress. 

In this brief analysis of thci social problems of 
American farmers it has been possible merely to outline 
those aspects of the subject that seem to be funda- 
mental. It is hoped that the importance of each prob- 
lem has been duly emphasized, that the wisest methods 
of progress have been indicated, and that the relation of 
the various social agencies to the main question has 
been clearly brought out. Let us leave the subject by 
emphasizing once more the character of the ultimate 
farm problem. This problem may be stated more con- 
cretely, if not more accurately, than was done at the 
opening of the paper, by saying that the ideal of rural 
betterment is to preserve upon our farms the typical 
American farmer. The American farmer has been 
essentially a middle-class man. It is this type we must 
maintain. Agriculture must be made to yield returns 
in wealth, in opportunity, in contentment, in social 
position, sufficient to attract and to hold to it a class of 
intelligent, educated American citizens. This is an end 
vital to the preservation of American democratic 



138 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

ideals. It is a result that will not achieve itself ; social 
agencies must be invoked for its accomplishment. It 
demands the intelligent and earnest cooperation of all 
who love the soil and who seek America's permanent 
welfare. 



XI 

THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM* 

Liberty H. Bailey 

If the betterment of rural conditions is a process of 
evolution, then all persons who are to be concerned in 
the evolution must take active part in it if they are to 
enjoy the benefits of the progress; and I like to think 
that each person will enjoy these benefits in about the 
proportion that he actively participates in the work of 
reconstruction. That is to say, we all bear a natural 
responsibility, as citizens, to forward the rural status 
as well as the urban status ; and this responsibility rests 
specially on all those who are near the problem or are a 
part of it. The countryman must not be one of a 
recipient or receptive class, but he must himself 
promptly help and cooperate to solve the rural problems 
and to discharge his full obligations to society. 

Even a farm is not a private business in the sense that 
it should be absolved of responsibility to society and be 
outside all regulations in the interest of society. 

Schools, colleges, experiment stations, departments, 
and bureaus devoted to agriculture and country life 
are now many and they are increasing. They mark a 
distinct advance in the application of knowledge and 
teaching to the plain daily problems of the people. 

* From "The Training of Farmers," by permission of the publishers, 
The Century Company. 

1.39 



140 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

They are rapidly becoming the best expressions oi the 
social responsibility of government. Their work is free 
of cost to individuals ; and in this fact lies a danger, now 
becoming real, that their benefits will be accepted as a 
matter of course and of right, and that the individual 
will not contribute in return as much as he is under 
obligation to contribute or as will make the help that he 
receives of real value to him ; for I assume that when a 
person receives personal help and encouragement from 
society (or government) he contracts an obligation 
to aid society and his fellow man. The institutions 
will render the best service when they help persons to 
help themselves and when they stimulate active local 
initiative on the part of those with whom they deal 
or work. 

If the countryman is to be trained to the greatest 
advantage, it will not be enough merely to bring in 
things from the outside and present them to him. Farm- 
ing is a local business. The farmer stands on the land. 
In a highly developed society, he does not sell his farm 
and move on as soon as fertility is in part exhausted. 
This being true, he must be reached in terms of his 
environment. He should be developed natively from his 
own standpoint and work ; and all schools, all libraries, 
and organizations of whatever kind that would give the 
most help to the man on the land must begin with this 
point of view. 

I will illustrate this by speaking of the current coun- 
try movement to revive sports and games. More games 
and recreations are needed in the country as much as in 
the city. In fact, there may be greater need of them in 
the country than elsewhere. The tendency seems to be 



THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 141 

just BOW, however, to introduce old folk-games. We 
must remember that folk-games such as we are likely 
to introduce have been developed in other countries and 
in other times. They represent the life of other peo- 
ples. To a large extent they are love-making games. 
They are not adapted in most cases to our climate. To 
introduce them is merely to bring in another exotic fac- 
tor and to develop a species of theatricals. 

I would rather use good games that have come directly 
out of the land. Or if new games are wanted I should 
like to try to invent them, having in mind the real needs 
of a community. I suspect that suggestions of many 
good sports can be formd in the open country, that 
might be capable of considerable extension and develop- 
ment, and be made a means not only of relaxation, but 
of real education. We need a broad constructive de- 
velopment of rural recreation, but it should be evolved 
out of rural conditions and not transplanted from the 
city. 

We are gradually evolving into a social conception of 
government, by which I mean that the inherent rights 
and welfare of all the citizens are to be recognized and 
safeguarded and that the whole body of citizens shall 
work together cooperatively for these common ends. 
Privilege and opportunity belong to every man, accord- 
ing to his ability and deserts. It is a common misappre- 
hension that this gradually approaching social stage 
will eliminate individualism and that its methods will 
constitute a leveling process ; but individualism and 
social solidarity are not at all antipodal. 

Individuality and personality are much to be de- 
sired, and we are under obligation to see that they are 



142 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

not lost in our progressing civilization. The farmer is 
the individualist. His isolation, and his ownership of 
land and of tools, make him so. He may lose his in- 
dividualism when he attempts to dispose of his prod- 
uct, but he nevertheless retains his feeling of individual- 
ity and independence throughout life. He may even 
resent any inquiry into his M'elfare by government, even 
though it is apparent that the sole purpose of the 
inquiry is to aid him. We need to preserve and en- 
courage the spirit of independence, at the same time 
that we forward the social cohesion and working 
together of farmers on all points of mutual or col- 
lective interest. The educational and other institutions 
should help to do these two things, — to assist the 
farmer to rely on himself and to be resourceful, and 
to encourage him to work with other farmers for 
the purpose of increasing the profitableness of farm- 
ing and of developing a good social life in rural 
communities. 

It will be seen at once that this is not at all a ques- 
tion of "uplift," as this word is commonly understood. 
The rural question is broadly a problem of stimulation, 
redirection, and reconstruction. 

Nor is it, therefore, merely a problem of technical 
agriculture as an occupation, although, of course, the 
whole rural condition rests on the agricultural con- 
dition. All citizenship must rest ultimately on occupa- 
tion, for all good citizens must be workers of one kind 
or another, and there must be no parasitic class. The 
question directly concerns all persons who live in rural 
communities, whatever their occupation, and it concerns 
them in all their relations, — in relations to church. 



THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 143 

school, cooperation, organization, to politics and all 
public improvement, and in the general outlook on life 
and the attitude toward all matters that affect the gen- 
eral welfare. 

It is not a problem merely of the thinly settled 
farming regions, but of the entire country outside 
distinctly urban influences, comprising hamlets, villages, 
and even small cities that sit in an agricultural region 
and are controlled by agricultural sentiment. To desig- 
nate this extra-urban realm I have used, for several 
years, the terms "the open country," and this has 
now become current in this semi-technical or special 
signification. 

Considered as a whole, the people of the open country 
have not yet arrived at a conception of a thoroughly 
social or cooperative society. The farming people have 
been obliged — and are still obliged — to give too great a 
proportion of their thought and energy merely to 
making a living. They have not entered on the social 
phase and they scarcely know what it means. They are 
tied to the daily routine both because they have not 
learned how to organize and conduct an agricultural 
business effectively, and because they are preyed upon 
and subjugated by interests that control distribution, 
exchange, and markets, and that divert or exploit the 
common resources of the earth. 

The farmer must be aided in his business of farming, 
and the artificial hindrances that are not a part of this 
business must be removed or checked by government; 
then he must be made to feel that he is to give of his 
time and talent to the community. In the largest sense, 
no person is a good citizen, whether in country or town, 



144 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

who merely has good character and is passively inof- 
fensive and is a "good neighbor." He must be actively 
interested in the public welfare, and be willing to put 
himself under the guidance of a good local leader, if 
he does not himself attain to leadership. 



XII 
THE MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS * 

Theodore Roosevelt 

As A people there is nothing in which we take a juster 
pride than our educational system. It is our boast that 
every boy or girl has the chance to get a school train- 
ing; and we feel it is a prime national duty to furnish 
this training free, because only thereby can we secure 
the proper type of citizenship in the average American, 
Our public schools and our colleges have done their 
work well, and there is no class of our citizens deserving 
of heartier praise than the men and women who teach 
in them. 

Nevertheless, for at least a generation we have been 
waking to the knowledge that there must be additional 
education beyond that provided in the public school as 
it is managed to-day. Our school system has hitherto 
been well-nigh wholly lacking on the side of industrial 
training, of the training which fits a man for the shop 
and the farm. This is a most serious lack, for no one 
can look at the peoples of mankind as they stand at 
present without realizing that industrial training is one 
of the most potent factors in national development. 
We of the United States must develop a system under 
which each individual citizen shall be trained so as to be 

* An address delivered at the Semi-centennial of tbe Michigan. Agricul- 
tural College, Friday afternoon, May 31st, 1907. 

145 



146 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

effective individually as an economic unit and fit to be 
organized with his fellows ; so that he and they can work 
in efficient fashion together. This question is vital to 
our future progress, and public attention should be 
focused upon it. Surely it is eminently in accord with 
the principles of our democratic life that we should fur- 
nish the highest average industrial training for the 
ordinary skilled workman. But it is a curious thing 
that in industrial training we have tended to devote our 
energies to producing high-grade men at the top rather 
than in the ranks. Our engineering schools, for instance, 
compare favorably with the best in Europe, whereas 
we have done almost nothing to equip the private 
soldiers of the industrial army — the mechanic, the 
metal-worker, the carpenter. Indeed, too often our 
schools train away from the shop and the forge; and 
this fact, together with the abandonment of the old 
apprentice system, has resulted in such an absence of 
facilities for providing trained journeymen that in 
many of our trades almost all the recruits among the 
workmen are foreigners. Surely this means that there 
must be some systematic method provided for training 
young men in the trades, and that this must be co- 
ordinated with the public-school system. No industrial 
school can turn out a finished journeyman; but it can 
furnish the material out of which a finished journey- 
man can be made, just as an engineering school fur- 
nishes the training which enables its graduates speedily 
to become engineers. 

We hear a great deal of the need of protecting our 
workingmen from competition with pauper labor. I 
have very little fear of the competition of pauper labor. 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 1 4T 

The nations with pauper labor are not the formidable 
industrial competitors of this country. What the Amer- 
ican workingman has to fear is the competition of the 
highly skilled workingman of the countries of greatest 
industrial efficiency. By the tariff and by our immigra- 
tion laws we can always protect ourselves against the 
competition of pauper labor here at home ; but when we 
contend for the markets of the world we can get no pro- 
tection, and we shall then find that our most formidable 
competitors are the nations in which there is the most 
highly developed business ability, the most highly de- 
veloped industrial skill ; and these are the qualities 
which we must ourselves develop. 

We have been fond as a nation of speaking of the 
dignity of labor, meaning thereby manual labor. Per- 
sonally I don't think that we begin to understand what 
a high place manual labor should take; and it never 
can take this high place unless it offers scope for the 
best type of man. We have tended to regard education 
as a matter of the head only, and the result is that a 
great many of our people, themselves the sons of men 
who worked with their hands, seem to think that they 
rise in the world if they get into a position where they 
do no hard manual work whatever; where their hands 
will grow soft and their working-clothes will be kept 
clean. Such a conception is both false and mischievous. 
There are, of course, kinds of labor where the work 
must be purely mental, and there are other kinds of 
labor where, under existing conditions, very little de- 
mand indeed is made upon the mind, though I am glad 
to say that I think the proportion of men engaged in 
this kind of work is diminishing. But in any healthy 



148 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

community, in any community with the great solid 
qualities which alone make a really great nation, the 
hulk of the people should do work which makes demands 
upon both the body and the mind. Progress cannot 
permanently consist in the abandonment of physical 
labor, but in the development of physical labor so that 
it shall represent more and more the work of the trained 
mind in the trained body. To provide such training, 
to encourage in every way the production of the men 
whom it alone can produce, is to show that as a nation 
we have a true conception of the dignity and importance 
of labor. The calling of the skilled tiller of the soil, the 
calling of the skilled mechanic, should alike be recog- 
nized as professions, just as emphatically as the call- 
ings of lawyer, of doctor, or banker, merchant, or 
clerk. The printer, the electrical worker, the house 
painter, the foundry man, should be trained just as 
carefully as the stenographer or the drug clerk. They 
should be trained alike in head and in hand. They 
should get ov^r the idea that to earn twelve dollars a 
week and -call it "salary" is better than to earn twenty- 
five dollars a week and call it "wages." The young 
man who has the courage and ability to refuse to enter 
the crowded field of the so-called professions and to take 
to constructive industry is almost sure of an ample 
reward in earnings, in health, in opportunity to marry 
early, and to establish a home with reasonable freedom 
from worry. We need the training, the manual dexter- 
ity, and industrial intelligence which can best be given 
in a good agricultural, or building, or textile, or watch- 
making, or engraving, or mechanical school. It should 
be one of our prime objects to put the mechanic, the 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 149 

wage-worker who works with his hands, and who ought 
to work in a constantly larger degree with his head, on 
a higher plane of efficiency and reward, so as to in- 
crease his effectiveness in the economic world, and there- 
fore the dignity, the remuneration, and the power of 
his position in the social world. To train boys and 
girls in merely literary accomplishments to the total 
exclusion of industrial, manual, and technical training 
tends to unfit them for industrial work; and in real life 
most work is industrial. 

The problem of furnishing well-trained craftsmen, or 
rather journeymen fitted in the end to become such, is 
not simple — few problems are simple in the actual 
process of their solution — and much care and fore- 
thought and practical common-sense will be needed, In 
order to work it out in a fairly satisfactory manner. Ih 
should appeal to all our citizens. I am glad that 
societies have already been formed to promote indus- 
trial education, and that their membership includes 
manufacturers and leaders of labor unions, educators 
and publicists, men of all conditions who are interested 
in education and in industry. It is such cooperation 
that offers most hope for a satisfactory solution of the 
question as to what is the best form of industrial school, 
as to the means by which it may be articulated with the 
public-school system, and as to the way to secure for 
the boys trained therein the opportunity to acquire in 
the industries the practical skill which alone can make 
them finished journeymen. 

There is but one person whose welfare is as vital to 
the welfare of the whole country as is that of the wage- 
worker who does manual labor, and that is the tiller of 



160 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the soil — the farmer. If there is one lesson taught by 
history, it is that the permanent greatness of any state 
must ultimately depend more upon the character of its 
country population than upon anything else. No 
growth of cities, no growth of wealth, can make up for 
a loss in either the number or the character of the farm- 
ing population. In the United States more than in 
almost any other country we should realize this and 
should prize our country population. When this 
nation began its independent existence it was as a 
nation of farmers. The towns were small and were for 
the most part near seacoast trading and fishing ports. 
The chief industry of the country was agriculture, and 
the ordinary citizen was in some way connected with it. 
In every great crisis of the past a peculiar dependence 
has had to be placed upon the farming population ; and 
this dependence has hitherto been justified. But it can- 
not be justified in the future if agriculture is permitted 
to sink in the scale as compared with other employ- 
ments. We cannot afford to lose that preeminently 
typical American, the farmer who owns his own farm. 
Yet it would be idle to deny that in the last half- 
century there has been in the eastern half of our coun- 
try a falling off in the relative condition of the tillers of 
the soil, although signs are multiplying that the nation 
has waked up to the danger and is preparing to grapple 
effectively with it. East of the Mississippi and north 
of the Ohio and the Potomac there has been on the 
whole an actual shrinkage in the number of the farming 
population since the Civil War. In the states of this 
section there has been a growth of population — in some 
an enormous growth — ibut the growth has taken place 



IMAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 151 

in the cities, and especially in the larger cities. This 
has been due to certain economic factors, such as the 
extension of railroads, the development of machinery, 
and the openings for industrial success afforded by the 
unprecedented growth of cities. The increased facility 
of communication has resulted in the withdrawal from 
rural communities of most of the small, widely dis- 
tributed manufacturing and commercial operations of 
former times, and the substitution therefor of the cen- 
tralized commercial and manufacturing industries of 
the cities. 

The chief offset to the various tendencies which have 
told against the farm has hitherto come in the rise of 
the physical sciences and their application to agricul- 
tural practices or to the rendering of country con- 
ditions more easy and pleasant. But these countervail- 
ing forces are as yet in their infancy. As compared 
with a few decades ago, the social or community life of 
country people in the East compares less well than it 
formerly did with that of the dwellers in cities. Many 
country communities have lost their social coherence, 
their sense of community interest. In such communi- 
ties the country church, for instance, has gone back- 
ward, both as a social and a religious factor. Now, we 
cannot insist too strongly upon the fact that it is quite 
as unfortunate to have any social as any economic 
falling off. It would be a calamity to have our farms 
occupied by a lower type of people than the hard- 
working, self-respecting, independent, and essentially 
manly men and womanly women who have hitherto con- 
stituted the most typically American, and on the whole 
the most valuable element in our entire nation. Am- 



152 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

bitlous native-born young men and women who now 
tend away from the farm must be brought back to it, 
and therefore they must have social as well as economic 
opportunities. Everything should be done to encourage 
the growth in the open farming country of such insti- 
tutional and social movements as will meet the demand 
of the best type of farmers. There should be libraries, 
assembly halls, social organizations of all kinds. The 
school building and the teacher in the school building 
should, throughout the country districts, be of the very 
highest type, able to fit the boys and girls not merely to 
live but thoroughly to enjoy and to make the most of 
the country. The country church must be revived. All 
kinds of agencies, from rural free delivery to the 
bicycle and the telephone, should be utilized to the 
utmost ; good roads should be favored ; everything 
should be done to make it easier for the farmer to lead 
the most active and effective intellectual, political, and 
economic life. 

There are regions of large extent where all this, or 
most of this, has already been realized; and while this 
is perhaps especially true of great tracts of farming 
country west of the Mississippi, with some of which I 
have a fairly intimate personal knowledge, it is no less 
true of other great tracts of country east of the 
Mississippi. In these regions the church and the school 
flourish as never before ; there is a more successful and 
more varied farming industry ; the social advantages 
and opportunities are greater than ever before ; life is 
fuller, happier, more useful; and though the work is 
more effective than ever, and in a way quite as hard, it 
is carried on so as to give more scope for well-used 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 153 

leisure. My plea is that we shall all try to make more 
nearly universal the conditions that now obtain in the 
most favored localities. 

Nothing in the way of scientific work can ever take 
the place of business management on a farm. We ought 
all of us to teach ourselves as much as possible ; but we 
can also all of us learn from others ; and the farmer 
can best learn how to manage his farm even better than 
he now does by practice, under intelligent supervision 
on his own soil in such a way as to increase his income. 
This is the kind of teaching which has been carried on 
in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas by Doctor Knapp, 
of the National Department of Agriculture. But much 
has been accomplished by the growth of what is broadly 
designated as agricultural science. This has been de- 
veloped with remarkable rapidity during the last quar- 
ter of a century, and the benefit to agriculture has been 
great. As was inevitable, there was much error and 
much repetition of work in the early application of 
money to the needs of agricultural colleges and experi- 
ment stations alike by the nation and the several states. 
Much has been accomplished ; but much more can be 
accomplished in the future. The prime need must 
always be for real research, resulting in scientific con- 
clusions of proved soundness. Both the farmer and the 
legislature must be aware of invariably demanding im- 
mediate returns from investments in research efforts. 
It is probably one of our faults as a nation that we are 
too impatient to wait a sufficient length of time to 
accomplish the best results ; and in agriculture effective 
research often, although not always, involves slow and 
long-continued effort if the results are to be trust- 



154 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

worthy. While applied science in agriculture as else- 
where must be judged largely from the standpoint of 
its actual return in dollars, yet the farmers no more 
than anyone else can afford to ignore the large results 
that can be enjoyed because of broader knowledge. The 
farmer must prepare for using the knowledge that can 
be obtained through agricultural colleges by insisting 
upon a constantly more practical curriculum in the 
schools in which his children are taught. He must not 
lose his independence, his initiative, his rugged self- 
sufficiency ; and yet he must learn to work in the 
heartiest cooperation with his fellows. 

The corner stones of our unexampled prosperity are, 
on the one hand, the production of raw material, and its 
manufacture and distribution on the other. These two 
great groups of subjects are represented in the na- 
tional government principally by the Department of 
Agriculture and the Department of Commerce and 
Labor.* The production of raw material from the sur- 
face of the earth is the sphere in which the Department 
of Agriculture has hitherto achieved such notable re- 
sults. Of all the executive departments there is no 
other, not even the Post-Office, which comes into more 
direct and beneficent contact with the daily life of the 
people than the Department of Agriculture, and none 
whose yield of practical benefits is greater in proportion 
to the public money expended. 

But great as its services have been in the past, the 
Department of Agriculture has a still larger field of 
usefulness ahead. It has been dealing with growing 
crops. It must hereafter deal also with living men. 

* In 1913 this Department was divided into the Department of Oommerc« 
and the Department of Labor. — The Editors. 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 155 

Hitherto agricultural research, instruction, and agita- 
tion have been directed almost exclusively toward the 
production of wealth from the soil. It is time to adopt 
in addition a new point of view. Hereafter another 
great task before the National Department of Agricul- 
ture and the similar agencies of the various states must 
be to foster agriculture for its social results, or, in other 
words, to assist in bringing about the best kind of life 
on the farm for the sake of producing the best kind of 
men. The government must recognize the far-reaching 
importance of the study and treatment of the prob- 
lems of farm life, alike from the social and the economic 
standpoints ; and the federal and state departments of 
agriculture should cooperate at every point. 

The farm grows the raw material for the food and 
clothing of all our citizens ; it supports directly almost 
half of them ; and nearly half the children of the United 
States are born and brought up on farms. How can the 
life of the farm family be made less solitary, fuller of 
opportunity, freer from drudgery, more comfortable, 
happier, and more attractive? Such a result is most 
earnestly to be desired. How can life on the farm be 
kept on the highest level, and where it is not already 
on that level, be so improved, dignified, and brightened 
as to awaken and keep alive the pride and loyalty 
of the farmer's boys and girls, of the farmer's 
wife, and of the farmer himself? How can a compelling 
desire to live on the farm be aroused in the children that 
are born on the farm? All these questions are of vital 
importance, not only to the farmer, but to the whole 
nation ; and the Department of Agriculture must do its 
share in answering them. 



156 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

The drift toward the city is largely determined by 
the superior social opportunities to be enjoyed there, 
by the greater vividness and movement of city life. Con- 
sidered from the point of view of natural efficiency, the 
problem of the farm is as much a problem of attractive- 
ness as it is a problem of prosperity. It has ceased to 
be merely a problem of growing wheat and corn and 
cattle. The problem of production has not ceased to be 
fundamental, but it is no longer final ; just as learning 
to read and write and cipher are fundamental, but are 
no longer the final ends of education. We hope ulti- 
mately to double the average yield of wheat and corn 
per acre ; it will be a great achievement ; but it is even 
more important to double the desirability, comfort, and 
standing of the farmer's life. 

We must consider, then, not merely how to produce, 
but also how production affects the producer. In the 
past we have given but scant attention to the social side 
of farm life. We should study much more closely than 
has yet been done the social organization of the country, 
and inquire whether its institutions are now really as 
useful to the farmer as they should be, or whether they 
should not be given a new direction and a new impulse, 
for no farmer's life should lie merely within the 
boundary of his farm. This study must be of the East 
and the West, the North and the South ; for the needs 
vary from place to place. 

First in importance, of course, comes the effort to 
secure the mastery of production. Great strides toward 
this end have already been taken over the larger part of 
the United States ; much remains to be done, but much 
has been done; and the debt of the nation to the various 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 157 

agencies of agricultural improvement for so great an 
advance is not to be overstated. But we cannot halt 
here. The benefits of high social organization include 
such advantages as ease of communication, better edu- 
cational facilities, increased comfort of living, and those 
opportunities for social and intellectual life and inter- 
course, of special value to the young people and to the 
women, which are as yet chiefly to be had in centers of 
population. All of this must be brought within the 
reach of the farmers who live on the farms, of the men 
whose labor feeds and clothes the towns and cities. 

Farmers must learn the vital need of cooperation 
with one another. Next to this comes cooperation 
with the government and the government can best give 
its aid through associations of farmers rather than 
through the individual farmer ; for there is no greater 
agricultural problem than that of delivering to the 
farmer the large body of agricultural knowledge which 
has been accumulated by the national and state govern- 
ments and by the agricultural colleges and schools. 
Nowhere has the government worked to better ad- 
vantage than in the South, where the work done by the 
Department of Agriculture in connection with the 
cotton growers of the southwestern states has been phe- 
nomenal in its value. The farmers in the region affected 
by the boll weevil, in the course of the efforts to fight it, 
have succeeded in developing a most scientific hus- 
bandry, so that in many places the boll weevil became 
a blessing in disguise. Not only did the industry of 
farming become of very much greater economic value in 
its direct results, but it became immensely more inter- 
esting to thousands of families. The meetings at which 



158 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the new subjects of interest were discussed grew to have 
a distinct social value, while with the farmers were 
joined the merchants and bankers of the neighborhood. 
It is needless to say that every such successful effort to 
organize the farmer gives a great stimulus to the ad- 
mirable educational work which is being done in the 
southern states, as elsewhere, to prepare young people 
for an agricultural life. It is greatly to be wished that 
the communities whence these students are drawn and 
to which they either return or should return, could be 
cooperatively organized ; that is, that associations of 
farmers could be organized, primarily for business pur- 
poses, but also with social ends in view. This would 
mean that the returned students from the institutions of 
technical learning would find their environment pre- 
pared to profit to the utmost by the improvements in 
technical methods which they had learned. 

The people of our farming regions must be able to 
combine among themselves as the most efficient means 
of protecting their industry from the highly organized 
interests which now surround them on every side. A 
vast field is open for work by cooperative associations 
of farmers in dealing with the relation of the farm to 
transportation and to the distribution and manufac- 
ture of raw materials. It is only through such combi- 
nation that American farmers can develop to the full 
their economic and social power. Combination of this 
kind has, in Denmark, for instance, resulted in bring- 
ing the people back to the land, and has enabled the 
Danish peasant to compete in extraordinary fashion, 
not only at home but in foreign countries, with all 
rivals. 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 159 

Agricultural colleges and farmers' institutes have 
done much in instruction and inspiration ; they have 
stood for the nobility of labor and the necessity of 
keeping the muscles and the brain in training for indus- 
try. They have developed technical departments of 
high practical value. They seek to provide for the 
people on the farms an equipment so broad and thor- 
ough as to fit them for the highest requirements of our 
citizenship ; so that they can establish and maintain 
country homes of the best type and create and sustain 
a country civilization more than equal to that of the 
city. The men they train must be able to meet the 
strongest business competition, at home or abroad, and 
they can do this only if they are trained, not alone in 
the various lines of husbandry, but in successful 
economic management. These colleges, like the state 
experiment stations, should carefully study and make 
known the needs of each section, and should try to pro- 
vide remedies for what is wrong. 

The education to be obtained in these colleges should 
create as intimate relationship as it is possible between 
the theory of learning and the facts of actual life. 
Educational establishments should produce highly 
trained scholars, of course; but in a country like ours, 
where the educational establishments are so numerous, 
it is folly to think that their main purpose is to pro- 
duce these highly trained scholars. Without in the 
least disparaging scholarship and learning — on the 
contrary, while giving hearty and ungrudging admira- 
tion and support to the comparatively few whose 
primary work should be creative scholarship — it must 
be remembered that the ordinary graduate of our 



160 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

colleges should be and must be, primarily, a man and 
not a scholar. Education should not confine itself to 
books. It must train executive power and try to 
create that right public opinion which is the most potent 
factor in the proper solution of all political and social 
questions. Book-learning is very important, but it is 
by no means everything; and we shall never get the 
right idea of education until we definitely understand 
that a man may be well trained in book-learning and 
yet, in the proper sense of the word and for all prac- 
tical purposes, be utterly uneducated; while a man of 
comparatively little book-learning may, nevertheless, 
in essentials have a good education. 

It is true that agriculture in the United States has 
reached a very high level of prosperity ; but we cannot 
afford to disregard the signs which teach us that there 
are influences operating against the establishment or 
retention of our country life upon a really sound basis. 
The overextensive and wasteful cultivation of pioneer 
days must stop and give place to a more economical 
system. Not only the physical but the ethical needs 
of the people of the country districts must be con- 
sidered. In our country life there must be social and 
intellectual advantages as well as a fair standard of 
physical comfort. There must be in the country, as in 
the town, a multiplication of movements for intellectual 
advancement and social betterment. We must try to 
raise the average of farm life, and we must also try to 
develop it so that it shall offer exceptional chances for 
the exceptional man. 

Of course the essential things after all are those 
which concern all of us men and women, no matter 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 161 

whether we live in the town or in the country, and no 
matter what our occupations may be. The root prob- 
lems are much the same for all of us, widely though 
they may differ in outward manifestation. The most 
important conditions that tell for happiness within the 
home are the same for the town and the country ; and 
the relations between employer and employee are not 
always satisfactory on the farm any more than in the 
factory. All over the country there is a constant com- 
plaint of paucity of farm labor. Without attempting 
to go into all the features of this question I would like 
to point out that you can never get the right kind, the 
best kind, of labor if you offer employment only for a 
few months, for no man worth anything will perma- 
nently accept a system which leaves him in idleness for 
half the year. 

And most important of all, I want to say a special 
word on behalf of the one who is too often the very 
hardest worked la:borer on the farm — the farmer's wife. 
Reform, like charity, while it should not end at home, 
should certainly begin there ; and the man, whether he 
lives on a farm or in a town, who is anxious to see 
better social and economic conditions prevail through 
the country at large, should be exceedingly careful that 
they prevail first as regards his own womankind. I 
emphatically believe that for the great majority of 
women the really indispensable industry in which they 
should engage is the industry of the home. There are 
exceptions of course; but exactly as the first duty of 
the normal man is the duty of being the home maker, 
so the first duty of the normal woman is to be the home 
keeper ; and exactly as no other learning is as important 



162 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

for the average man as the learning which will teach him 
how to make his livelihood, so no other learning is as 
important for the average woman as the learning 
which will make her a good housewife and mother. But 
this does not mean that she should be an overworked 
drudge. I have hearty sympathy with the movement to 
better the condition of the average tiller of the soil, of 
the average wage-worker, and I have an even heartier 
sympathy and applause for the movement which is to 
better the condition of their respective wives. There is 
plenty that is hard and rough and disagreeable in the 
necessary work of actual life; and under the best cir- 
cumstances, and no matter how tender and considerate 
the husband, the wife will have at least her fuU share of 
work and worry and anxiety ; but if the man is worth 
his salt he will try to take as much as possible of the 
burden off the shoulders of his helpmate. There is 
nothing Utopian in the movement ; all that is necessary 
is to strive toward raising the average, both of men 
and women, to the level on which the highest type of 
family now stands, among American farmers, among 
American skilled mechanics, among American citizens 
generally ; for in all the world there is no better and 
healthier home life, no finer factory of individual char- 
acter, nothing more representative of what is best and 
most characteristic in American life than that which 
exists in the higher type of American family, and this 
higher type of family is to be found everywhere among 
us, and is the property of no special group of citizens. 
The best crop is the crop of children ; the best prod- 
ucts of the farm are the men and women raised there- 
on ; and the most instructive and practical treatises 



MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 168 

on farming, necessary though they be, are no more 
necessary than the books which teach us our duty to 
our neighbor, and above all to the neighbor who is of 
our own household. You young men and women of 
the agricultural and industrial colleges and schools 
must have some time for light reading; and there is 
:^ome light reading quite as useful as heavy reading, 
provided, of course, that you do not read in a spirit of 
mere vacuity. Aside from the great classics, and think- 
ing only of the many healthy and stimulating books of 
the day, it is easy to pick out many which can really 
serve as tracts, because they possess what many avowed 
tracts and treatises do not, the prime quality of being 
interesting. You will learn the root principles of self- 
help and helpfulness toward others from "Mrs. Wiggs 
of the Cabbage Patch," just as much as from any 
formal treatise on charity ; you will learn as much sound 
social and industrial doctrine from Octave Thanet's 
stories of farmers and wage-workers as from avowed 
sociological and economic studies ; and I cordially 
recommend the first chapter of "Aunt Jane of Ken- 
tucky" for use as a tract in all families where the men 
folks tend to selfish or thoughtless or overbearing disre- 
gard of the rights of their womankind. 

Do not misunderstand me. I have not the slightest 
sympathy with those hysterical and foolish creatures 
who wish women to attain to easy lives by shirking 
their duties. I have as hearty a contempt for the 
woman who shirks her duty of bearing and rearing the 
children, of doing her full housewife's work, as I have 
for the man who is an idler, who shirks his duty of 
earning a living for himself and for his children, or who 



164. ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

is selfish or brutal toward his wife and children. I 
believe in the happiness that comes from the perform- 
ance of duty, not from the avoidance of duty. But I 
believe also in trying, each of us, as strength is given 
us, to bear one another's burdens ; and this especially 
in our own homes. No outside training, no cooperation, 
no government aid or direction can take the place of a 
strong and upright character ; of goodness of heart 
combined with clearness of head, and that strength and 
toughness of fiber necessary to wring success from a 
rough workaday world. Nothing outside of home can 
take the place of home. The school is an invaluable 
adjunct to the home, but it is a wretched substitute for 
it. The family relation is the most fundamental, the 
most important of all relations. No leader in church or 
state, in science or art or industry, however great his 
achievement, takes the place of the mothers, "who are 
the first of sovereigns and the most divine of priests.^' 



XIII 

THE COUNTRY GIRL ♦ 

Maktha Foote Crow 

The clarion of the country life movement has by this 
time been blown with such loudness and insistence that 
no hearing ear in our land can have escaped its an- 
nouncement. The distant echoes of brutal warfare have 
not drowned it : above all possible rude and cruel sounds 
this peaceful piping still makes itself heard. 

It has reached the ears of the farmer and has stirred 
his mind and heart to look his problems in the face, to 
realize their gigantic implications, and to shoulder the 
responsibility of their solution. It has penetrated to 
the thoughts of teachers and educators everywhere and 
awakened them to the necessities of the minute, so that 
they have declared that the countryside must have edu- 
cational schemes adapted to the needs of the country- 
side people, and that they must have teachers whose 
heads are not in the clouds. It has aroused easy-going 
preachers in the midst of their comfortable dreams 
and has caused here and there one among them to bestir 
himself and to make hitherto unheard-of claims as to 
what the church might do — if it would — for the better- 
ment of country life. 

And all of these have given hints to philanthropists 

_ * From "The American Country Girl," by Martha Foote Crow. By per- 
mission of the author sad of the publishers, Frederick A. Stokes Company. 

165 



166 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

and reformers, and these to organizations and societies ; 
these again have suggested theories and projects to 
legislators, senators, and presidents ; the snowball has 
been rolled larger and larger; commissions have sat, 
investigations have been made, documents have been 
attested, reports handed in, bills drafted and, what is 
better, passed by courageous legislatures ; so that now 
great schemes are being not only dreamed of, but 
put into actual fulfilment. Moreover, lecturers have 
talked and writers have issued bulletins and books, 
until there has accumulated a library of vast propor- 
tions on the many phases of duty, activity, and outlook 
that may be included under the title, "A Country Life 
Movement." 

In all this stirring field of new interest, the farmer 
and his business hold the center of attention. Beside 
him, however, stands a dim little figure hitherto kept 
much in the background, the farmer's wife, who at last 
seems to be on the point of finding a voice also ; for a 
chapter is now assigned to her in every book on rural 
conditions and a little corner under a scroll work design 
is given to her tatting and her chickens in the weekly 
farm paper. Cuddled about her are the children, and 
they, the little farm boys and girls, have now a book 
that has been written just about them alone — their 
psychology and their needs. Also, the tall, strong 
youth, her grown-up son, has his own paper as an 
acknowledged citizen of the rural commonwealth. But 
where is the tall young daughter, and where are the 
papers for her and the books about her needs? It 
seems that she has not yet found a voice. She has 
failed to impress the makers of books as a subject for 



THE COUNTRY GIRL 167 

description and investigation. In the nation-wide effort 
to find a solution to the great rural problems, the farmer 
is working heroically ; the son is putting his shoulder 
to the wheel ; the wife and mother is in sympathy with 
their efforts. Is the daughter not doing her share? 
Where is the Country Girl and what is happening in 
her department ? 

It is easier on the whole to discover the rural young 
man than to find the typical Country Girl. Since the 
days of Mother Eve the woman young and old has been 
adapting herself and readapting herself, until, after all 
these centuries of constant practice, she has become a 
past master in the art of adaption. Like the cat in the 
stor}' of Alice, she disappears in the intricacy of the 
wilderness about her and nothing remains of her but a 
smile. 

There are some perfectly sound reasons why Amer- 
ican country girls as a class cannot be distinguished 
from other girls. Chief among these is the fact that no 
group of people in this country is to be distinguished 
as a class from any other group. It is one of the 
charms of life in this country that you never can place 
anybody. No one can distinguish between the shop 
girl and a lady of fashion ; nor is any school teacher 
known by her poise, primness, or imperative gesture. 
The fashion paper, penetrating to the remotest dug-out, 
and the railway engine indulging us in our national 
passion for travel see to these things. Moreover, the 
pioneering period is still with us and the western 
nephews must visit the cousins in the old home in New 
Hampshire, while the aunts and uncles left behind must 
£?"o out and see the new Nebraska or Wyoming lands 



168 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

on which the young folks have settled. We do not stay 
still long enough anywhere in the republic for a class 
of any sort to harden into recognizable form. New 
inhabitants may come here already hardened into the 
mold of some class ; but they or their children usually 
soften soon into the quicksilver-like consistency of their 
surroundings. 

There is also no subdividing of notions on the basis 
of residence, whether as townsman or as rural citizen. 
The wind bloweth where it listeth in this land. It 
whispers its free secrets into the ears of the city- 
dweller in the flat and of the rural worker of the corn- 
field or the vine-screened kitchen. The rain also falls 
on the just and the unjust whether suburbanated or 
countrified. There is no rural mind in America. There 
has indeed been a great deal of pother of late over the 
virtue and temper of "rural-minded people." 

This debate has been conscientiously made in the 
effort to discern reasons why commissions should sit 
on a rural problem. Reasons enough are discernible 
why commissions should sit, but they lie rather in the 
unrural mind of the rural people, as the words are 
generally understood, than in some supposed qualities 
imposed or produced in the life of sun and rain, in that 
vocation which is nearest to the creative activities of 
the Divine. 

And if there is no rural mind, there is no distinctive 
rural personality. If the man that ought to exemplify 
it is found walking up Fifth Avenue or on Halstead 
Street or along El Camino Real, he cannot be discovered 
as a farmer. He may be discovered as an ignorant 
person, or he may be found to be a college-bred man ; 



THE COUNTRY GIRL 169 

but in neither case would the fact bo logically inclusive 
or uninclusive of his function as farmer. 

The same is almost as exactly true for his wife and 
his daughter. If one should ask in any group of aver- 
age people whether the farmer's daughter as they have 
known her is a poor little undeveloped child, silent and 
shy, or a hearty buxom lass, healthy and strong and 
up-to-date, some in the group would say the latter and 
some the former. Both varieties exist and can by search- 
ing be found along the countryside. But it is nothing 
essentially rural that has developed either the one set 
of characteristics or the other. To be convinced of 
this, one who knows this country well has but to read 
a book like "Folk of the Furrow," by Christopher 
Holdenby, a picture of rural life in England. In such 
a book as that one realizes the full meaning of the 
phrase, "the rural mind," and one sees how far the 
men and women that live on the farms in the United 
States have yet to go, how much they will have to 
coagulate, how many centuries they will have to sit still 
in their places with wax in their ears and weights on 
their eyelids, before they will have acquired psycholog- 
ical features such as Mr. Holdenby gives to the folk of 
the English furrow. 

A traveler in the Old World frequently sees illustra- 
tion's of this. For instance, in passing through some 
European picture gallery, he ma}'^ meet a woman of 
extraordinary strength and beauty, dressed in a style 
representing the rural life in that vicinity. She will 
wear the peasant skirt and bodice, and will be without 
gloves or hat. A second look will reveal that the skirt 
is made of satin so stiff that it could stand alone ; the 



170 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

velvet bodice will be covered with rich embroidery ; and 
heavy chains of silver of quaint workmanship will 
suspend around the neck. 

On inquiry one may learn that this stately woman 
was of what would be called in this country a farmer 
family, that had now become very wealthy ; that she 
did not consider herself above her "class" — so they 
would describe it — no, that she gloried in it instead. 
It was from preference only that she dressed in the 
fashion of that "class." 

Now, whether desirable or not, such a thing as this 
would never be seen in America. No woman (unless it 
were a deaconess or a Salvation Army lassie or a nun) 
would pass through the general crowd showing her 
rank or profession in life by her style of dress. And 
that is how it happens that neither by hat nor by hat- 
lessness would the country woman here make known 
her pride in the possession of acres or in her relation 
to that profession, that forms the real basis of national 
prosperity. Hence no country girl counts such a pride 
among her inheritances. Therefore if it is not easy to 
find and understand the Country Girl as a type, it is 
not because she is consciously or unconsciously hiding 
herself away from us ; she is not even sufficiently 
conscious of herself as a member of a social group to 
pose in the attitude of an interesting mystery. She is 
just a human being happening to live in the country 
(not always finding it the best place for her proper 
welfare), just a single one in the great shifting mass. 

Although it may be difficult to find what we may 
think are typical examples of the Country Girl as a 
social group, yet certain it is that she exists. Of young 



THE COUNTRY GIRL 171 

women between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine, there 
are in the United States six and a half million (6,694,- 
IS-i to be exact) who reside in the open country or in 
small villages. This we are assured Is so by the latest 
Census Report.* 

By starting a little further down in the scale of girl- 
hood and advancing a trifle further Into maturity this 
number could be doubled. It would be quite justifiable 
to do this, because some farmers' daughters become 
responsible for a considerable amount of labor value 
well before the age of fifteen ; and on the other hand the 
energy of these young rural women Is abundantlv 
extended beyond the gateway of womanhood, far indeed 
into the period that used to be called old-maidlsm, but 
which is to be so designated no more ; the breezy, execu- 
tive, free-handed period when the country girl Is of 
greatest use as a labor unit and gives herself without 
stint (and often without pay) to the welfare of the 
whole farmstead. The American Country Girl is not by 
any means behind her city sister in her ability to make 
the bounds of her youth elastic, though the girl on the 
farm may go at it In a somewhat different way. Then, 
perhaps, too, the word "youth" may, alas ! have another 
connotation in the mind of one from what It has in the 
dreams of the other. 

If we should, however, thus enlarge the scope of our 
inquiry, we should increase but not clarify our problems. 
Moreover, it is the Country Girl that interests us, 
the promise and hope of her dawn, the delicate, swiftly 
changing years of her growth, the miracle of her blos- 
soming. There is something about the kaleidoscope of 

* The figures here given are from the Census of 1910. 



172 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

her moods and the inconsistencies of her biography that 
fascinates us. The moment when she awakes, when the 
sparkle begins to show in her eyes, when we know that 
a conception of her mission and of her supreme value 
to life is beginning to glow before her imagination — 
that is the crisis to work for and to be happy over when 
it comes. As for us, we ask no greater happiness than 
once or twice to catch a glimpse of that. 

That great host of six million country girls Is scat- 
tered far and wide; they are everywhere present. A 
certain number of millions of them are working indus- 
triously in myriads of unabandoned farms all over the 
Appalachian plateau, and on the wide prairies to the 
Rockies and beyond. In thousands of farmsteads they 
are helping their mothers wash dishes three times a day 
three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, not 
counting the steps as they go back and forth between 
dining-room and kitchen. They are carrying heavy 
pails of spring water into the house and throwing out 
big dishpanfuls of waste water, regardless of the strain 
in the small of the back. They are picking berries and 
canning them for the home table in the winter; they 
are raising tomatoes and canning them for the market ; 
they are managing the younger children ; they are bak- 
ing and sewing and reading and singing; they are 
caring for chickens and for bees and for orphan lambs ; 
they ride the rake and the disc-plow and sometimes 
join the round-up on the range. Moreover, they go to 
church and they go to town and they look forward to 
an ideal future just as other girls do. The Country 
Girl is a human being also. 

It has been intimated that young women living on 



THE COUNTRY GIRL 173 

remote secluded farms have not, with all their singing, 
been always able to dispel the monotony of a thousand 
inevitable dishwashings a year ; they are said nowadays 
to have opened their ear to the lure of the town and to 
have started out, keeping step with their brothers, to 
join what some one has called, "the funeral procession 
of the nation" cityward. If we could, in fact, get them 
to confide in us, we should find that they have longings 
and aspirations, many of which are unsatisfied; and 
that is the reason why it seems to be high time for their 
voice to be heard. 

Some of the younger farm women are showing them- 
selves equal to the larger burdens in the business of 
agriculture. They are running their own farms in 
Michigan and their own automobiles in Kansas. They 
are taking up claims. They are developing them and 
proving up in the Dakotas and through Montana and 
Wyoming. From four to six in the morning they till 
an acre; then they ride twenty miles to the school and 
teach from nine to four ; after that they ride back and 
work in their cornfields till the stars twinkle out. They 
stay alone in their shack and are happy and fearless 
and safe. 

Moreover some thousands of the girls are laboriously 
teaching schools in thousands of one-room schoolhouses, 
where they provide almost one hundred per cent, of 
the common instruction for fifty per cent, of the 
population. 

Besides this, there is no one of all the gainful oc- 
cupations in which young women of this country engage 
which has not drawn upon the reservoir of country 
strength for supplies. Among those women black- 



174 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

smiths and engineers, those clerks, secretaries, librar- 
ians, and administrators, those lawyers, doctors, pro- 
fessors, writers, those nurses, settlement workers, inves- 
tigators and other servants of the people in widely 
diverse fields, there are many whose clearness of eye and 
reserve of force have been developed in the wholesome 
conditions of the open country. The Country Girl has 
no reason to be ashamed of the part she has borne in the 
non-rural world. It has been said that about eighty 
per cent, of the names found in "Who's Who in Amer- 
ica" represent an upbringing in tlie rural atmosphere. 
The proportion of women in this number or the special 
proportion of grown-up farm girls to be found among 
those women cannot be stated; but the number 'must be 
large enough to justify a belief that to spend a child- 
hood in the open country or in the rural village will not, 
in the case of women any more than in the case of men, 
form an impassable -barrier to eminence. 

From this great rural reserve of initiating force, sane 
judgment, and spiritual drive have come, in fact, some of 
the most valued names in philanthropy and literature. 
Among them we find the leader of a great reform, 
Frances Willard ; the inaugurator of a world-wide work 
of mercy, Clara Barton ; the president of a great 
college, Alice E. Freeman ; the wise helper of all who 
suffer under unjust conditions in city life, Jane Ad- 
dams ; and the writer of a book that has had a national 
and world-wide influence, Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

It heartens us up a bit to name over examples like 
these. They give us a vista and a hope. But now and 
then there is a Country Girl who would rather have, 
say, a better pair of stilts over the morass or a stronger 



THE COUNTRY GIRL 175 

rope thrown to her across the quicksand, than a volume 
of "Who's Who" tossed carelessly to her in her dif- 
ficulties. For all the country girls on their farms do 
not sing at their work. They are not idle, heaven 
knows ! — ibut their work does not invariably inspire the 
appreciation it deserves. 

Of course no one would wish to claim that the young 
woman in the farmstead is of more importance than 
other members of the home ; but as a chain will break if 
one link fails, so the farmstead will be ruined if it lacks 
the cooperation of the daughter. She has, at least, 
a function all her own ; and the happiness that comes 
through normal growth must be hers in order that she 
may fulfil her mission. The farmstead girl must take 
her place in the farmstead or the farmstead unit will 
lack one of its component parts and fall to pieces. It 
is her patriotic duty ; it is her home and family duty ; 
and it is her greatest happiness. The young woman on 
the farm must grow up with the idea that she is essential 
to the progress of country life and therefore of the 
national life and that a career is before her just as 
much as if she were aiming to be an artist or a writer or 
a missionary. This purpose makes her life worth while ; 
she must conserve her health for this ; she must develop 
her powers for this ; she must train herself heroically 
for this. 



THE FARMER AS A MAN OF BUSINESS 



XIV 

BUSINESS METHODS IN FARMING * 

Oscar H. Benson 

America is the land of farms, and agriculture is its 
most important and fundamental industry. All other 
occupations must go back to the soil, either directly 
or indirectly, for their support, if not for their very 
existence. The success and welfare of every class of 
our population, therefore, depend on the business of 
farming. 

The United States is especially favored in the fertil- 
ity of its virgin soil, its vast areas of tillable land, and 
its wide ranges of climate adapted to the growing of 
many crops. America leads the world in agricultural 
opportunity. No other people possess the advantages 
and natural wealth that we have in our farms. 

Yet the very fact that our soil is rich and our land 
plentiful contains an element of danger. For nature's 
kindness and prodigality have led us into carelessness in 
the use of this, the most important of our natural re- 
sources. We have been almost criminally wasteful of 
the fertility of our soil. 

Our first care has been to get the largest possible 
returns out of a given amount of highly expensive labor 
— for land has been plentiful and cheap, while labor has 

* From "Agriculture and the Farming Business," by Oscar H. Benson 
and Oeorge Herbert Belts. Copyright, 1917. Used by special permission 
of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. 

179 



180 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

been dear. In few regions have we learned the meaning 
of intensive farming such as must constantly be prac- 
tised in most countries of Europe and Asia in order to 
feed the population. 

When more food has seemed necessary for our ever- 
increasing population, we have only "gone West" and 
opened up fields of virgin territory. Often this has been 
done after robbing the eastern or southern soil of most 
of its fertility. Here the older fields have been given 
over to idleness for the more promising fields of the 
West. During the last three hundred years of Amer- 
ican history, we have been continually looking to the 
frontier states for farms and future homes. First, the 
white-covered "prairie schooners," and, later, the rail- 
way trains have carried a sturdy race of pioneers 
toward the setting sun and this country, the dream of 
plenty. 

This constantly moving population has been the 
direct cause of the rapid settlement and development 
of many of our best agricultural sections. It has given 
us an enterprising and progressive farming population, 
— men and women consecrated to the cause of trans- 
forming wild prairies and untamed forests into fertile 
acres and productive fiields. Everywhere they have 
gone we now find beautiful gardens, orchards, and homes 
as monuments to their endurance, industry, and per- 
sistence. 

The frontiers of this nation, however, are fast be- 
coming a thing of the past. Most of our best land 
has already been opened up to settlement and divided 
into farms. We now have under cultivation the larger 
part of the land available to feed our ever-increasing 



BUSINESS METHODS IN FARMING 181 

population. True, there are vast fields of our great 
plains and millions of acres of forest land yet to be 
reclaimed. All this, however, will have to be made 
productive at much greater expense of money and 
energy than was required for the earlier lands now oc- 
cupied by the American farmers. Most of the land 
in order to be put under tillage will require permanent 
and costly systems of irrigation. Such regions will 
finally be reclaimed by science and good business man- 
agement ; for we need the land, and must have it. Both 
federal and state governments are even now doing all 
in their power to aid in its reclamation. But we should 
first of all conserve and use to the best advantage the 
land we now have under cultivation. 

The tiller of the soil is one of our most important 
economic factors. On his success and prosperity the 
welfare of the nation depends. His intelligence and 
progress will have a far-reaching effect upon our entire 
industrial history, and will go far to determine our 
place among nations. We have no peasantry. Amer- 
ican farmers, as a class, are intelligent, they are am- 
bitious, they are men of affairs. The American farmer 
is not infrequently called upon to serve as state legis- 
lator, congressman, or senator. From his ranks we 
have taken governors and presidents. 

In all American industries there have recently been 
great changes. Inventions, better education, and a 
new outlook upon life have led to prosperity ; the 
farming business and this prosperity have worked 
toward greater efficiency. During the past generation, 
and especially during the past ten years, the entire 
face of the earth industrially has been making over 



182 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

very rapidly. New manufacturing machinery has been 
introduced, greater systems devised, the cost of produc- 
tion reduced and the amount increased. 

Among all of our industries, however, none has ex- 
perienced a greater growth and development than the 
business of farming. It is no longer to be classed as 
unskilled labor, a catch-all job for the man who can- 
not find an opening elsewhere. The farmer of to-day 
would find himself greatly handicapped if he should 
undertake to think and act in terms of the past. A 
generation ago one could find plenty of careless prac- 
titioners, but almost no practical scientists among our 
farmers ; on the other hand, there were a considerable 
number known as agricultural theorists, but who knew 
little or nothing about real farm practice. Conse- 
quently, there developed misunderstanding between the 
practitioner and the scientist. They had very little of 
common interest. 

The progressive farmers of to-day, however, are 
practical scientists ; they know how to translate scien- 
tific information into common practice. To succeed in 
farming, one must understand the care of the soil and 
liow to conserve it ; he must be thoroughly informed in 
matters of fertilizing, systems of rotating crops and 
the tillage of various soils. Every farmer must be a 
business manager, salesman, bookkeeper, and an all- 
around man of ability and skill. In a measure, the 
farmer must be both a bacteriologist and an entomolo- 
gist, for unless he knows how to combat the insect pests 
and plant diseases of growing crops, trees, and farm 
animals, he will sooner or later meet his Waterloo in 
the battle with these enemies. 



BUSINESS METHODS IN FARMING 183 

Scientific breeding of stock and the fitting of every 
farm enterprise into the farming business as a wliole 
are of utmost importance. A man must understand 
markets and methods of marketing. The adjustment 
of time in the use of labor, machinery, animals, and 
acres, so as to secure a maximum return from a mini- 
mum investment, this is most imperative in these days 
of business competition and ever-increasing land and 
food values. 

The home is the true center of all farm interests and 
activities. It is to build homes that we buy our farms, 
build up* our enterprises and apply our best skill in 
labor. If the farm neglects the domestic life, the hap- 
piness and well-being of the family, if it forgets its 
obligations to the community, the church and state, 
not only* the farm, but society in general surely will 
suffer the consequences. All of these relations and 
many others call for* the' greatest degree of intelligence, 
for good business, sense, and for constant fidelity to the 
cause of American rural life as well as all-around farm 
efficiency. 

Recent years have shown increased and unusual inter- 
est on the part of the whole world in the business of 
farming. This is not merely philanthropic, nor Is it a 
sentimental necessity. People in other occupations, 
particularly those in business and commerce, have come 
to appreciate that farming is the economic basis of 
every type of work and enterprise. All members of 
society to-day wisli the farmer well, and are willing to 
advance his prosperity, not alone because they are 
interested in the farmer as a social equal and a fellow 
citizen, but because they recognize that they must ulti- 



184 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

mately go back to the tiller of the soil for food, shelter, 
and practically all 'the comforts of life. They want the 
farmer to raise larger -and better crops, produce more 
and better stock, and himself be happy and prosperous 
because of the inevitable prosperity that it brings to all 
o-thers. 

At. the present time we are told that the American 
population is increasing many times faster than is the 
production of our food supplies. During the last 
twenty years the cost of living has practically doubled. 
If this continues for the next decade, it will be difficult 
to judge the economic and social consequences. It is, 
therefore, important that- every acre of land in the 
United States be made increasingly efficient, to produce 
more and better food. And. this means intensive farm- 
ing; but this does not necessarily bar extensive farming. 

There is yet a large area of our land untouched by 
the hand of tillage. On these barren acres, which 
science and business enterprise will yet make fruitful, 
there is room for thousands of those who are now living 
in filth, poverty, and obscurity in the congested centers 
of our large cities. But they must be able to possess 
themselves of the promised land — they must be trained 
to the busmess of farming. 

So also in the southern states, where the growing 
season is long, rainfall plentiful, and where every con- 
ceivable kind of food will grow and thrive, there is only 
a comparatively small percentage of the total area of 
the land under cultivation. When one travels over 
these areas of untilled acres which will surely one day 
be the garden spot of America, he cannot but feel that 
some very definite policy should be adopted toward 



BUSINESS METHODS IN FARMING 185 

offering to the millions of our poverty-stricken city 
dwellers a chance to work out their salvation and be 
better fed from the soil. But this cannot be done 
simply by transferring them from city to open country. 
They must first be educated in the science and practice 
of agriculture, stock-raising, and farm management, 
else they would suffer in the country as surely as in the 
city. 

The new interest in agriculture has resulted in the 
organization of many agencies to help- the farmer. The 
federal government is now spending millions of dollars 
every year in agricultural extension work, farm demon- 
strations, farm surveys, experimentation, and in scien- 
tific research in agriculture. New varieties of crops are 
being tested and new breeds of animals produced. Suc- 
cessful attempts are being made to control the ravages 
caused by insect and plant enemies of farm crops and 
animals, and many other lines of investigation pursued. 
Every state has its experiment station, its extension 
force and its college of agriculture, with an array of 
farm experts who are doing everything, in. their power 
to advance the interests of agriculture and the farmer. 
The nation and the state join in employing farm. agents, 
trained in both practical and scientific agriculture, to 
work with the farmers in the solution of their immediate 
problems. Farm bulletins are being printed and dis- 
tributed free of charge by the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture and the state agricultural colleges. 
Extension lectures and agricultural experts are going 
into every community, teaching the application of 
science to all crop and animal production. Various 
commercial organizations, bankers' associations and 



186 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

business men's clubs are everywhere* contributing gen- 
erously to the advancement of agricultural education 
and progress. 

The farmers themselves are in most instances respond- 
ing to their opportunities and endeavoring faithfully 
to meet the many new. problems that 'have been thrust 
upon them. Progressive farmers everywhere are eagerly 
studying the scientific investigations being made in the 
field of agriculture. They are reading the books and 
bulletins, attending the agricultural short courses at 
the state colleges, supporting farmers' institutes, study- 
ing stock and grain judging and in every way doing 
their best to place farming upon the scientific basis 
that our new conditions demand. 

The business of farming to-day offers a career second 
to none to be found among the industrial or business 
vocations. It has opportunities for the man of intelli- 
gence and ambition. It requires and rewards initiative 
and enterprise. It demands and is willing to pay for the 
best intellect and industry that our country affords. 
The farmer will always be an important factor in 
American wealth and progress, and is destined to take 
still higher rank as a contributor to industrial and 
social welfare. 



XV 

FARM MANAGEMENT— A NEW SCIENCE * 
W. J. Spili/Man 

Agricultural, science may be said to have had its 
beginning with the studies of Bousingault, the dis- 
tinguished French scientist, who in the year 1804 began 
a series of experiments to determine the usefulness of 
certain chemical substances as sources of plant food. 
Enormous strides have been made since that time. A 
whole flock of sciences has grown up around agriculture 
as a center, and we now have numerous kinds of agri- 
cultural specialists. Some investigators limit them- 
selves to the study of soils ; others confine their attention 
to the growing of field crops ; others to garden crops 
and fruits ; some study only plant diseases ; others the 
diseases of animals. The science of nutrition has be- 
come an important phase of agricultural science. We 
might go on enumerating dozens of specialties that now 
have their followers. 

It was natural that these early investigators should 
attack the problems of farming from the standpoint of 
sciences in which they had had their training. Thus 
the chemist becomes interested in the application of his 
science to the problems of farming, and develops Agri- 
cultural Chemistry. The botanist becomes an agrono- 
mist — a man who specializes in growing crops. 

* From Tractor Farming, April, 1919, by permission of the author and 
the International Harvester Company of America. 

187 



188 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Under the impulse of these specialists we developed 
the slogan: "He who grows two blades of grass where 
one grew before is a greater public benefactor than he 
who rules a city." The fact that the farmer who grew 
the two blades often got less for them than he formerly 
got for one seemed to be overlooked. Much emphasis 
was placed on the dignity of the farmers' calling, which 
was to "feed the world." 

Finally there came along a man whose thinking was 
cut on the bias. He called attention to the fact that 
men had been farming for many thousand years before 
anyone ever thought of any kind of science. In fact, 
civilization began when men began to cultivate crops. 
The distinguished mark between the earliest civilized 
communities and the savage hordes that surrounded 
them was a settled agriculture. This man, whose 
mental pattern had been cut crosswise of the leather, 
insisted that during the thousands of years men had 
been farming they had learned much that had been 
handed down from father to son by tradition. He even 
went so far as to say that ninety per cent, of what we 
know about farming was derived from experience, the 
other ten per cent, from scientific investigation. He 
proposed that we take up the study of farm practice 
as a means of formulating the knowledge gained by 
practical farmers and too often lost again when the 
old experienced men passed out. He finally found an 
opportunity to make such studies and to train a lot of 
enthusiastic young men to do likewise. 

But a very unexpected result came from these studies. 
They had not proceeded far when it became apparent 
that there lay hidden in the experience of practical 



FARM MANAGEMENT 189 

farmers a new science that no one had ever recog- 
nized. This science was later named Farm Manage- 
ment. It deals with the principles involved in making 
farming profitable, as well as successful from the stand- 
point of feeding and clothing the world. Amongst 
European economists who have studied rural economics 
the idea seems to be quite firmly fixed that because the 
average small farm in Europe produces greater values 
per acre than large farms, it necessarily follows that 
all farms should be small. We look at this matter 
quite differently in America. We are not so much con- 
cerned about the return per acre. The point we empha- 
size is the return per man. If a farm family can make 
a better living on 100 acres from which they can secure 
a return of $20 per acre than on 20 ^cres from which 
they get a return of $50 per acre, then we advise the 
hundred-acre farm. We think it is better for the 
country as a whole to have farm families making $2,000 
than $1,000 a year. ; 

Perhaps the first important lesson learned from the 
new science of Farm Management was the fact that the 
doctrine of the "small farm well-tilled" is a fallacy. We 
have substituted for this doctrine the better one of "a 
good living and ten per cent." for every farm family — 
five per cent, as interest on the investment and five per 
cent, as wages for labor and management on the part 
of the farm operator. 

In every case where farm management surveys have 
been made, when the farms are divided into groups based 
on size of farm, and only farms of the same general type 
are considered, it was found that families on the smaller 
farms were not making an adequate living. In general 



190 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the best results are secured when the farm is of such 
size and so organized that it will give full employment 
to two men, which is about the proper size to give an 
average farm family opportunity to utilize their full 
earning capacity without making themselves slaves to 
their work. In other words, the science of farm man- 
agement has taught us that best results are secured 
all around on family farms. 

Farm management investigators have developed 
simple metliods of analyzing the business of a farm in 
such manner as to show the profit or loss from the 
year's operations. If the farm business is not too com- 
plex the farmer himself can fill in one of these "survey" 
blanks and find what his profit or loss for the year has 
been. He can do it in any case if he will keep a few 
simple records of his sales and purchases. By ana- 
lyzing the business of a large number of farms in the 
same community it is easily possible to tell what types 
of farming are most profitable in that community. Not 
only that, but it is possible to tell what acreage of each 
of the leading crops should be grown on the average 
farm for best results. Thus, in Chester County, 
Pennsylvania, it was found that those farmers who had 
two years of corn in their rotation instead of one year 
made much more money. Those who grew no oats in 
this particular locality made more money than those 
who did. Those who had about forty to forty-five per 
cent, of their land in hay made more than those who 
had more or less hay acreage. These surveys have 
been of much help to the farmers in the regions where 
they have been made, and they should be made in every 
important agricultural region of the country every few 



FARM MANAGEMENT 191 

years. They would help to keep agriculture on an even 
keel by showing when changes in cropping systems and 
kinds of live stock are needed, and what these changes 
should be. 

It has, of course, always been known that farmers 
•who keep their land fertile made more profit than those 
who let their land run down. But farm management 
surveys have given this fact more definite meaning. 
They show just how much a given increase in yield 
would add to the profit in farming. Sometimes it hap- 
pens that profits can be increased much more rapidly 
by concentrating attention on something else than in- 
creased yield per acre. Thus the easiest way to in- 
crease profits on a given farm may be to increase or 
even to decrease the number or kind of dairy cows kept, 
to cut down the number of work horses required by 
making some insignificant change in the relative acre- 
age of the crops grown, by introducing a tractor that 
will enable the operator to get his plowing done more 
promptly, by increasing or decreasing the number of 
hogs or steers fed, or in any one of a hundred other 
ways. In one case a careful study of a farm that was 
making no profit revealed the fact that it had the best 
rotation for its region ; that its yields per acre were 
just about what they should be; that the number of 
cows and the quality of these cows were all that could 
be desired. The owner lived on the farm, but conducted 
a law business in a near-by town, and could not give the 
farm very close supervision. His foreman was an old 
man who had two sons and three sons-in-law, four of 
whom were already employed on this farm, and the old 
man was trying to make a place for the fifth, although 



192 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the farm needed only two good men to keep it going In 
good shape. The labor bill ate up the profits. Had we 
not already studied the question of the amount of labor 
really required on similar farms in this region the real 
trouble on this farm would probably have been over- 
looked. In fact, one "expert" had already told the 
owner that the real solution to his troubles was that 
his cows were not good enough, while another had sug- 
gested that if he would substitute alfalfa for clover and 
timothy his troubles would disappear. 

The science of farm management also deals with 
problems of farm equipment. One trouble we find with 
small farms is that they cannot afford to own the larger 
types of labor-saving machinery which they seriously 
need. Many farmers who keep four or more work horses 
have only two-horse implements. If they would equip 
their farms with a full set of four-horse implements 
they could save nearly half of what they now pay out 
to hired men, for fewer men could do the work. 

Another very important lesson learned in farm man- 
agement investigations is that the young fellow just 
starting out with very little capital can make about 
three times as much as a renter than he can as the owner 
of the land he tills. The reason for this is that with 
his small capital he can farm four or five times as much 
land as a tenant than his capital would permit him to 
own. It is only when he has enough ahead to make a 
first payment on a good-sized farm that it pays him 
to pass from tenant to owner. But the fact that farm- 
ers universally become owners just as soon as they are 
able to make a decent living on land of their own shows 
that there are compelling reasons for owning rather 



FARM MANAGEMENT 193 

than renting land. This subject is too big to discuss 
fully here. 

Perhaps the most important contribution the science 
of farm management has made to farming is in work- 
ing out simple methods of getting at the cost of produc- 
tion on the farm. Heretofore many farmers have been 
growing wheat or keeping cows at a loss. The fact 
that these men could stay in business at all made some 
people believe they must be making a profit. But this 
is not true. We can all agree that farmers are entitled 
to wages and interest on their investment. But if a 
farmer gets two per cent, interest on a considerable 
investment, and fifty cents a day for his labor a good 
portion of the year, he can still live. This is just what 
wheat growers were doing when wheat was selling for 
eighty cents a bushel. It is also what milk producers 
were doing when butter was thirty cents a pound and 
milk three and one half cents a quart. Now that we 
can easily find what it costs to produce wheat or milk 
the public is beginning to wake up to the fact that 
farmers have not always been getting a square deal. 
The force of public opinion has compelled milk dealers 
in the big cities to pay prices that would at least return 
to the farmer his cost of production. The result is 
greatly increased prices for milk. With the knowledge 
now available to farmers they will no longer go ahead 
blindly producing food and clothing at prices that 
return them less than a fair rate of interest on their 
investment and less than fair wages for their labor. 

The science of farm management has developed meth- 
ods of finding what the manure of a farm animal is 
really worth to the farmer ; how much a silo adds to the 



194 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

farm income ; whether it pays best to feed steers or keep 
dairy cows ; whether it pays best to have one acre or 
five acres of orchard; whether on the ordinary farm 
it is more profitable to keep 100 hens or 300. It can 
be made to deliver answers to hundreds of other ques- 
tions that were never raised at all until we began to 
study the factors that make for greatest profit in 
farming. This new science has been slow in making its 
way in the agricultural colleges. It has met with 
opposition in high places. But it is gradually winning 
its way, and before long will be taught in every school 
of agriculture in the land. When this is done farming 
will be a much more attractive calling than it is even 
now. Farmers will find their business more profitable. 
They will have more money with which to buy from 
those whose business is to supply what farmers need in 
their business. And the standard of living on the farm 
will be higher than it is under present conditions. 



XVI 

HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS WITH THE 
FARMER * 

David F. Houston 

In the field of agriculture there is much to be done. 
This fundamental part of the Nation's industrial life 
will not stand still. Constructive action must, of 
necessity, continue, and there will be need of very clear 
and unbiased thinking. We shall have our troubles. 
We shall be confronted with numerous proposals from 
the enthusiast with limited knowledge and less sense of 
direction. The tasks confronting us in agriculture are 
tasks not of reconstruction but rather of further con- 
struction, of selection, and emphasis. I am confident 
that the agriculture of the Nation is on substantially 
sound foundations and is developing in the right direc- 
tion. Many experienced and disciplined minds and 
agencies in all parts of the country have zealously been 
stuying the problems for many years, with increasing 
effectiveness during the last generation, and it will sur- 
prise me if many novel steps of large proportions are 
not taken. 

Farming, of course, must pay. There always will be 
farmers enough if the business of farming is made 
profitable and if the conditions of farm life are made 

* Prom The American Review of Reviews, November, 1919, by permission. 

195 



196 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

attractive and healthful. The farmer, as well as the 
industrial worker, is entitled to a living wage and a 
reasonable profit on the investment. He is entitled also 
to satisfactory educational opportunities for his chil- 
dren and to the benefits of modern medical science and 
sanitation. It is not the mission of the farmers simply 
to supply food to the consumers at prices which the 
latter desire to pay. This is not the test. It is no more 
the duty of the farmers to supply food on an unprofit- 
able basis than it would be for the manufacturer to 
supply manufactured articles on an unprofitable basis. 
Each should want the other industry to prosper and the 
producers of all commodities to receive a fair price for 
what they produce. 

Of course everything possible is being done to enable 
the farmer to produce more economically, so that if 
prices do fall he will not sustain a loss, or so great a 
loss. All the efforts of the Department of Agriculture 
and of the land-grant colleges have this aim. They are 
trying to bring about better methods of cultivation, 
better financing, better marketing, the elimination of 
plant and animal diseases and insect pests, and the 
better utilization of labor. Much has been done in this 
direction, and much more will be done as time passes, i 

Interest in land for homes and farms increases in the 
Nation as the population grows. It has become more 
marked as the area of public land suitable and avail- 
able for agriculture has diminished. It is intensified 
by reason of the suggestion and desire that returned 
soldiers and others who may wish to secure farms 
shall have an opportunity to do so under suitable 
conditions. It finds expression, too, in discussions of 



HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS 197 

the number of tenant farmers and in its meaning and 
significance. 

That there is room in the Nation for many more 
people on farms is clear. The United States proper 
contains about 1,900,000,000 acres of land, of which 
an area of 1,140,000,000 acres, or 60 per cent., is tilla- 
ble. Approximately 367,000,000 acres, or 32 per cent., 
of this was planted in crops in 1918. In other words, 
for every 100 acres now tilled 300 acres may be utilized 
when the country is fully settled. Of course, much of 
the best land, especially that most easily brought under 
cultivation and in reasonably easy reach of large con- 
suming centers, is in use, though much of it, possibly 
85 per cent., is not yielding full returns. Extension of 
the farmed area will consequently be made with greater 
expense for clearing, preparation, drainage, and irri- 
gation, and for profitable operation will involve mar- 
keting arrangements of a high degree of perfection and 
the discriminating selection of crops having a relatively 
high unit value. 

Interest in land for homes and farms increases in the 
Nation as the population grows. It has become more 
marked as the area of public land suitable and avail- 
able for agriculture has diminished. It is intensified by 
reason of the suggestion and desire that returned 
soldiers and others who may wish to secure farms shall 
have an opportunity to do so under suitable conditions. 
It finds expression, too, in discussion of the number of 
tenant farmers and in its meaning and significance. 

To a certain extent, we are still pioneering the conti- 
nent, agriculturally and otherwise, and are still ex- 
porters of food, feedstuff's, and materials for clothing. 



198 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

With wise foresight and increased employment of 
scientific practice, under the stimulation of intelligent 
agencies, we can take care of and provide for a very 
much larger population under even more favorable cir- 
cumstances and in greater prosperity. This is the task 
to which the Nation has set itself and indicates the 
responsibility resting upon each individual, and espe- 
cially upon the farming population and state and fed- 
eral agencies responsible for leadership. We have, up 
to the present, succeeded in this enterprise. In the years 
from 1900 to 1915 the Nation gained a population of 
approximately 22,000,000, and they have been fed and 
clothed, in large measure, from domestic sources. It is 
estimated that in the years from 1915 to 1918 the 
population increased by 3,200,000, of which a very 
small part was from immigration. We shall, perhaps, 
gain as many more in the next fifteen or twenty years, 
even if tlie rate of immigration should not be main- 
tained, for the natural growth in recent years, aver- 
aging about three fourths of a million a year, shows an 
upward tendency. 

It would be desirable to facilitate land settlement in 
more orderly fashion. This can be effected in a 
measure by systematic effort on the part of the Federal 
Government, the States, and the several communities 
through appropriate agencies to furnish more reliable 
information, intelligent guidance, and well-considered 
settlement plans. The Nation has suff'ered not a little 
from irresponsible and haphazard private direction of 
settlement. In many sections, especially in the newer 
and more rapidly developing ones, the situation has been 
complicated by the activities of promoters whose main 



HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS 199 

concern was to dispose of their properties. They, too, 
frequently succeeded in attracting farmers to localities 
remote from markets where they either failed to produce 
crops or met with disaster through lack of marketing 
arrangements. 

It is particularly vital that by every feasible means, 
the process of acquiring ownership of farms -be en- 
couraged and hastened. This process is real in spite 
of appearances to the contrary. It has been too gen- 
erally assumed and represented that tenancy has in- 
creased at the expense of ownership and that we are 
witnessing agricultural deterioration in this direction. 
Tenancy does present aspects which should cause great 
concern, but its bright sides have not been sufficiently 
considered. The situation does not warrant a pessi- 
mistic conclusion. In the thirty years from 1880 to 
1910 the number of farms in the United States in- 
creased from 4,009,000 to 6,362,000; the number of 
those owned from 2,984,000 to 4,007,000, a gain of 
1,023,000, or 34.3 per cent.; and the number operated 
by tenants from 1,025,000 to 2,355,000, a gain of 
1,330,000, or 129.9 per cent. But in 1910 five eighths 
of the farms and 68 per cent, of the acreage of all lands 
in farms were operated by owners and 65 per cent, of 
the improved lands. The number of farms increased 
faster than the agricultural population. The only 
class not operating farms who could take them up were 
the younger men, and it is largely from them that the 
class of tenants has been recruited. 

In a recent study of the cases of 9,000 farmers, 
mainly in the Middle Western States lying in the Missis- 
sippi Valley, it was found that more than 90 per cent. 



200 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

were brought up on farms; that 31 1^ per cent, re- 
mained on their father's farms until they became owners 
and 27 per cent, until they became tenants, then 
owners; that 13^2 P^r cent, passed from wage-earners 
to ownership, skipping the tenant stage ; and that 18 
per cent, were first farm boys, then wage-earners, later 
tenants, and finally owners. It is stated on the basis 
of census statistics, that 76 per cent, of the farmers 
under twenty-five years of age are tenants, while the 
percentage falls with age, so that among those fifty- 
five years old and above only 20 per cent, are tenants. 
In the older section of the country (except in the South 
which has a large negro population), that is, in the New 
England and Middle Atlantic States, the tenant farm- 
ers formed a smaller proportion in 1910 than in 1900. 
This is also the case with the Rocky Mountains and 
Pacific Divisions, where there has been a relative 
abundance of lands. The conditions on the whole, 
therefore, are not in the direction of deterioration but 
of improvement. 'The process has been one of emer- 
gence of wage laborers and sons of farmers first to 
tenancy and then to ownership. 

The last six years have been especially fruitful of 
legislation and of its practical application for the bet- 
terment of agriculture. Special provision was made 
for the solution of problems in behalf of agriculture, 
embracing marketing and rural finance. The Bureau 
of Markets, unique of its kind and excelling in range of 
activities and financial support any other similar exist- 
ing organization, was created and is rendering effective 
service in a great number of directions. Standards for 
stable agricultural products were provided for and 



HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS 201 

have been announced and applied under the terms of the 
cotton-futures and grain-standards acts. Authority 
to license bonded warehouses which handle certain agri- 
cultural products was given to the Department, and the 
indications are that with normal conditions the oper- 
ation of the act will result in the better storing of farm 
products, the stabilization of marketing processes, and 
the issuance of more easily negotiable warehouse re- 
ceipts. The agricultural extension machinery, the 
greatest educational system ever devised for men and 
women engaged in their daily tasks, had very large and 
striking development. The Federal aid road act re- 
sulted in legislation for more satisfactory central high- 
way agencies in many states and the systematic plan- 
ning of road systems throughout the Union. To-day 
each state has a highway authority, with the requisite 
power and with adequate funds to meet the require- 
ments of the Federal measure. 

The Federal reserve act, which has benefited every 
citizen through its influence on banking throughout the 
Union, included provisions especially designed to assist 
the farming population. It authorized national banks 
to lend money on farm mortgages and recognized the 
peculiar needs of the farmer by giving his paper a 
maturity period of six months. This was followed by 
the Federal farm loan act which created a banking sys- 
tem reaching intimatel}?^ into the rural districts and 
operating on terms suited to the farm-owner's needs. 
This system began operations under the troubled con- 
ditions of the world war, and its activities were impeded 
by the vast changes incident to the entry of this coun- 
try into the conflict. But, in spite of these difficulties, it 



202 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

has made remarkable headway, and there is little doubt 
that its development will be rapid and will more than fill 
the expectations of the people. 

The operation of the farm loan system, through ar- 
rangements by which those who have 'sold land take a 
second mortgage subordinate to the first mortgage of 
the farm loan banks, carrying a relatively low rate of 
interest, will have a beneficial influence. If further de- 
velopments can be made through the application of the 
principle of cooperation, especially in the formation of 
personal credit unions, the conditions will be more 
favorable. In the meantime special attention and 
study should be given to the terms of tenancy, includ- 
ing the lease contract, with a view to increase the inter- 
est both of the landlord and of the tenant in soil im- 
provement and to make sure that there is an equitable 
division of the income. 

It still seems clear that there should be provided a 
system of personal credit unions, especially for the 
benefit of individuals whose financial circumstances and 
scale of operations make it diflicult for them to secure 
accommodations through the ordinary channels. Or- 
ganized commercial banks make short-term loans of a 
great aggregate volume to the farmers of the Nation 
possessing the requisite individual credit, but there are 
many farmers who because of their circumstances, are 
prevented from securing the accommodations they need. 

An investigation 'by the Department to determine the 
extent to which farmers in the Southern States were de- 
pendent upon credit obtained from merchants revealed 
the fact that 60 per cent, of them were operating under 
the "advancing system." The men I have especially 



HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS 203 

in mind are those whose operations are on a small scale 
and who are not in most cases intimately in touch with 
banking machinery, who know too little about financial 
operations, and whose cases usually do not receive the 
affirmative attention and sympathy of the banker. Such 
farmers would be much benefited by membership in co- 
operative credit associations or unions. 

Of course there are still other farmers whose stand- 
ards of living and productive ability are low, who 
usually cultivate the less satisfactory lands, who might 
not be received at the present into such associations. 
This class peculiarly excites interest and sympathy, but 
it is difficult to see how any concrete financial arrange- 
ment will reach it immediately. The great things that 
can be done for this element of our farming population 
are the things that agricultural agencies are doing for 
all classes but must do for it with zeal. The approach 
to the solution of its difficulty is an educational one, 
involving better farming, marketing, schools, health ar- 
rangements, and more sympathetic aid from the mer- 
chant and the banker. If the business men of the towns 
and cities primarily dependent on the rural districts 
realize that the salvation of their communities depends 
on the development of the back country and will give 
their organizing ability to the solution of the problem 
in support of the plans of the organized agricultural 
agencies responsible for leadership, much headway will 
be made. 

The foundation for effective work in this direction is 
tlie successful promotion of cooperative associations 
among farmers, not only for better finance but also for 
better production, distribution, and better living con- 



204. ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

ditions. These activities are of primary importance. 
At the same time, it is recognized that such cooper- 
ation cannot be forced upon a community, but must be 
a growth resulting from the volunteer, intelligent efforts 
of the farmers themselves. 

The Department has steadily labored especially to 
promote this movement by conducting educational and 
demonstrational work. Field agents in marketing have 
been placed in some of the states to give it special at- 
tention, and the county agents and other extension 
workers have rendered, and will continue to render, 
valuable assistance. The operations of the Farm Loan 
Board, especially in promoting the creation of its farm 
loan association, should be influential and highly 
beneficial. 

The Department, with its existing forces and avail- 
able funds, will continue to foster the cooperative move- 
ment and to keep in close touch with the Federal Farm 
Loan Board. 

Difficult as are the problems of production, they are 
relatively simple compared with those of distribution. 
Only within recent years have agencies been created by 
the Federal and some of the state governments to assist 
in the marketing of farm products. Six years ago the 
present Bureau of Markets began its work as a small 
ofl^ce with a very limited appropriation, and it has been 
carefully investigating the important marketing prob- 
lems, expanding its field services, administering regu- 
latory laws intended to correct abuses, and encouraging 
cooperative enterprises. It has been dealing with the 
many important questions involved in the standardiza- 
tion of production, the proper handling and packing of 



HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS 205 

farm products, the use of standard containers, proper 
storage on farms, in transit, and at marketing centers, 
and the stimulation of the formation of farmers' co- 
operative selling and purchasing agencies. It has as- 
sisted in the preparation and installation of accounting 
systems for, and has rendered active service to farmers 
in promoting cooperative enterprises. It has furnished 
suggestions for state legislation governing cooperative 
organization, and in conjunction with the state authori- 
ties, it employs trained men to advise ^^ztension workers, 
including the county agents, with reference to the 
marketing of their products and market organization 
problems. It conducts an inspection service on fruits 
and vegetables at 163 important central markets. 

It has in operation a nation-wide market news service 
which gives to producers information regarding con- 
ditions in the markets they can and should reach and to 
consumers information relative to current supplies and 
prices. In cooperation with a number of states, it 
issues exchange marketing lists periodically, which make 
known to county agents, breeders, and feeders where 
surpluses of live stock, feed, and seeds are to be found. 
It enforces four important regulatory measures, 
namely, the grain standards, the cotton futures, the 
standard basket, and the United States warehouse acts, 
which were enacted to correct abuses and to enable the 
farmer to sell his products more nearly for what they 
actually are worth. 

While the Bureau is already dealing with most of the 
larger problems involved in the distribution of agri- 
cultural commodities, its activities could be profitably 
expanded in many directions. It would be desirable, for 



206 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

instance, for it to have in each state one or more trained 
men working in cooperation with the state authorities 
to stimulate cooperative enterprises and to aid farmers 
in solving their marketing difficulties. The Market 
News Service could be extended with great advantage if 
the requisite funds were provided; and further work 
should be done in the matter of establishing standards. 
Three bills already have been introduced in Congress 
looking toward the establishment of standards for 
fruits and vegetables, feeds and cotton; and bills are 
now before the Congress for the supervision of the pack- 
ing plants and stockyards, as well as for the regulation 
of cold storage. All these things would aid, directly or 
indirectl}'^, in promoting the more systematic and 
orderly marketing of farm products. 

It is unnecessary to emphasize the vital importance 
of good roads both to urban and rural communities. In 
rural communities they are a prerequisite for effec- 
tive agricultural production and marketing, for good 
schools, and for an attractive country life. During the 
war it was necessar}"^ to curtail road-construction oper- 
ations, because of the difficulty of securing transporta- 
tion, materials, and the requisite services. After the 
signing of the armistice, the work was actively resumed 
and vigorously prosecuted notwithstanding the fact 
that conditions were abnormal in some respects, espe- 
cially in reference to the prices of materials and 
supplies. 

The Congress at its last session, accepting the recom- 
mendations of the Department of Agriculture, not only 
made available from the Federal Treasury large sums, 
aggregating $209,000,000, in addition to the original 



HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS 207 

appropriation of $85,000,000 in the Federal Aid Road 
Act, for road construction in cooperation with the 
states, but also made some important amendments to 
the Road Act. These amendments have had the effect 
of greatly lessening the difficulties of selecting and con- 
structing needed roads. 

The Federal Road Act, as amended, places only three 
limitations on the type of road to be constructed, as 
follows: The road must be substantial in character; it 
must be a "public" road a major portion of which is 
now used, or can be used, or forms a connecting link 
not to exceed ten miles in length of any road or roads 
now or hereafter used for the transportation of the 
United States mails ; and the amount contributed from 
the Federal Treasury for its construction must not ex- 
ceed 50 per cent, of the cost, or, in any event, $20,000 
a mile. Under the terms of the amended act, therefore, 
there are few important roads which will be debarred 
from receiving Federal aid. 

It will thus be seen that a broad and comprehensive 
road-building program has been inaugurated. This 
program is being vigorously pushed, and the indica- 
tions are that a larger volume of highway construction 
will have been accomplished this season than in any 
previous year in the history of the Nation. Further- 
more, the work is being done in such a way as to utilize 
to the best advantage the road-building experience and 
facilities of the whole country. 

The purpose of the Federal Aid Road Law is to 
encourage the construction of roads of a substantial 
nature by the states and to provide adequate safe- 
guards for securing systematic and economical action. 



208 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Long experience has shown that the best results will be 
secured if the work is performed under the supervision 
of the state highway departments, the method of the 
control depending upon local conditions. The greater 
the administrative and technical ability of these de- 
partments, the greater will be their usefulness to the 
taxpayers of the state. Under the Federal Law, the 
state highway departments have been strengthened and 
developed in a way that could not be equalled under any 
other type of national road legislation that has been 
suggested. The progress that has been made in this 
direction is very gratifying and helpful. 

By devoting all its energy to helping each state 
inaugurate the work as quickly and as extensively as 
possible, the Department of Agriculture multiplies its 
resources forty-eight times, and is a cooperator instead 
of a competitor in placing men and materials on the 
highways where they are most needed. The Depart- 
ment is maintaining the closest possible touch with the 
state highway departments, and, at its request, the 
American Association of State Highway Officials has 
designated some of its members to serve on an advisory 
committee to cooperate with the Department in the ad- 
ministration and execution of the provisions of the 
Federal Aid Act. 

At present, in order to secure for the public the 
benefits of the provisions of the Federal Food and 
Drugs Act with reference to animal feeds, it is neces- 
sary to rely on the appropriate statutes of the dif- 
ferent states. These are not uniform and there are a 
few states which have no laws that can be invoked. It is 
believed that it woiild be wise to have a comprehensive 



HOW THE GOVERNMENT WORKS 209 

Federal feed law placed upon the statute books, under 
which the Government could proceed in a uniform man- 
ner and secure to consumers adequate protection 
against misbranded, adulterated, and worthless feeds 
entering into interstate commerce. It is obvious, of 
course, that if such laws could be enacted they should 
result in the protection not only of the consumer, but 
also of the honest manufacturer and distributor. 

It is difficult to say what the world food situation will 
be at the end of the next harvest season and what will 
be the course of prices for farm products. For the next 
twelve months the world will subsist, in large measure, 
on food products already produced. The consensus of 
opinion, so far as the production program of this nation 
is concerned, is that it would be wise for the farmers 
to return to the normal as promptly as possible and to 
resume operations best suited to their particular con- 
ditions, realizing that the present calls for the fullest 
measure of economical production and for the practice 
of thrift. In their tasks for the future, as in the past, 
they will have at their disposal and for their aid the 
services of the Federal and state departments of agri- 
culture and of the great state land grant colleges — 
agencies which in the aggregate, as regards numbers of 
personnel, activities, and financial support, exceed those 
of any three nations in the world combined. 



XVII 

PRINCIPLES OF EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS * 
Dick T. Morgan 

There is a crisis in land-credit legislation! The 
turning point has been reached. The critical moment 
has arrived. An emergency exists. An exigency con- 
fronts the nation. A false step now may be irretrace- 
able, a blunder at this time may be incurable, a mis- 
take made at this juncture may be irretrievable, and an 
error committed in the pending crisis may be forever 
irreparable. 

In this crisis in land-credit legislation great interests 
are at stake. The prosperity of 6,500,000 farmers is 
involved. Forty-five million men, women, and children 
on our farms, and untold millions to follow them, are 
directly, intensely, and vitally interested. The fate of 
agriculture — its growth, development, and expansion — 
the annual wealth produced thereby, and its ability to 
produce an adequate supply of food products for our 
rapidly increasing population, depend in a large 
measure upon the outcome of the pending crisis. 

This crisis involves more than the physical and 
material well-being of our farmers and their families. 
The sweep of its influence includes their intellectual 
growth, their social welfare, and their moral and 
spiritual development. Its impress will tell on their 

* From "Land Credits," by permission of the author. 

210 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 211 

schools, their churches, their homes, their manhood and 
womanhood, and upon their lives and their hearts. 

The result of this crisis will determine the attitude 
of our Federal government toward the farmers of the 
United States. It will show what appreciation this gov- 
ernment has for the 12,500,000 people who toil upon 
our farms. It will indicate the policy of this govern- 
ment toward these people and their industry. Finally, 
it will show what respect this government has for the 
rights of the 45,000,000 men, women, and children who 
reside upon our farms. 

This crisis will not stop with the farmers. Its efiFect 
will not be restricted to agriculture. Its influence will 
not be confined to rural life. Its sway will not be 
limited to the country districts. It will involve every 
industry, business, calling, and profession of life. Its 
influence will extend to every section of the land, to 
every state in the Union, and to every home and fire- 
side. Commerce, manufacturing, mining, trade, trans- 
portation, merchandising, banking, clerical pursuit, the 
learned professions — -all are interested. The rich and 
the poor, the millionaire and the pauper, labor and 
capital, employers and emplo3'ees, merchants, artisans, 
day-laborers, and wage-earners — all will be affected bj 
the solution of the existing emergency in land-credit 
legislation. 

This crisis is not a creature of the imagination. It 
is not an illusion, a delusion, a fable, a dream, or a 
shadow. It is real and tangible. It may be seen and 
felt, comprehended and understood. It extends in every 
direction, touches our national life at every point, and 
encompasses the whole land. 



212 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Settle this crisis right and the republic will be 
strengthened, its power and influence will be augmented, 
its prestige will be enhanced, its fame will be magnified, 
its principles and ideals will be emphasized and ac- 
centuated, its resources and wealth will be multiplied, 
its security will be increased, its hands will be strength- 
ened, and under its flag will dwell a better citizenship, 
and a happier, more contented, and prosperous people. 

All European land-credit systems which provide for 
long-term, farm-mortgage loans are alike in some im- 
portant features. Germany, for instance, has several 
classes or kinds of land-credit institutions, organized 
under diff'erent laws, but they all have some things in 
common. So throughout Europe whatever may be the 
character of the institutions, associations, or corpora- 
tions, whether they be associations of borrowers, or or- 
ganizations of lenders, profit-sharing or non-profit- 
sharing, conducted for gain or for the public good, 
founded by private capital, or endowed by the state — 
they are alike in some essential principles, features, and 
characteristics. Among the common features of these 
institutions may be mentioned the following: 

1. They are all authorized by law, regulated by 
statute, and are subject to some kind of state or gov- 
ernmental supervision. 

2. They all make unrecallable, long-time, reducible 
loans. 

3. They all issue long-time bonds or debentures. 

4. They all require the principal debt to be paid by 
annual or semi-annual amortization payments. 

5. All make their bonds or debentures absolutely se- 
cure. 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 213 

1, Authorized by Law. Upon these fundamental 
propositions the land-credit systems of Europe are 
founded. These essential features must, of course, be 
embodied in the land-credit system of the United 
States. Obviously there can be no system or plan of 
land-credit without legal authority. Through state or 
Federal legislation land-credit institutions must be 
authorized. Private individuals cannot supply agricul- 
ture with credit. In this country, and in all other 
countries, ordinary commercial banks have failed to 
supply agriculture with proper credit. Banks doing 
business on deposits, subject to check, are unsuited to 
extend credit on land security. Individual money 
lenders are unequal to the task. The law must author- 
ize the formation of institutions especially designed to 
provide agricultural credit. As the modern business 
corporation has served all kinds of industrial and com- 
mercial enterprises, so it must serve the farmers in 
supplying them with credit. The farmers' land-credit 
corporation must have the sanction of legislation. It 
must have the prestige of the law behind it. Without 
this no land-credit institution can gain and hold the 
confidence of the public. So the first step is to create, 
through statutory enactment, artificial persons — cor- 
porations, associations, or institutions — and send them 
forth into the business world, clothed with the authority 
of the law, approved and sanctioned by the Federal 
government, designed, delegated, directed, and commis- 
sioned to perform the definite, specific work of pro- 
viding agriculture with adequate credit facilities. In 
addition to being authorized by law, they must be 
supervised by Federal authority. Some of the land- 



214 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

credit institutions are supervised by state or provincial 
authorities. These institutions have, however, lost by 
this rather than gained. There has been some discus- 
sion as to whether our land-credit institutions should 
be state or Federal institutions. A few of the states 
have authorized the organization of farm-credit bank- 
ing institutions. But nothing worth while can be ac- 
complished in this country except through national 
legislation, national incorporation, and national super- 
vision. This supervision can hardly be too severe. 
Anything which impairs confidence in our land-credit 
institutions will be absolutely fatal to their permanency 
and success. The Federal government, creating these 
institutions, must see to it that their business is con- 
ducted in a way that will protect both borrowers and 
investors, and insure both permanency and efficiency. 
The law itself must throw around them such general 
rules as will standardize their business methods and 
keep them within the limits of perfect safety. But be- 
yond this, there must be such official inspection, over- 
sight, and surveillance as will preclude losses through 
dishonesty, speculation, negligence, or inefficiency. 

2, Long-time Loans. In Europe long-time loans run 
from ten to seventy-five years. Farm loans in the 
United States generally do not 'run for a period to ex- 
ceed five 3'ears. In other words, as the term is used in 
Europe, American farmers have no long-time loans. 
This is one great defect in our present farm-loan busi- 
ness. It is unjust to the farmer in many ways. Mr. 
Oren Taft, Jr., of Chicago, who has had extensive ex- 
perience in the farm-loan business, in an article in 
"Trust Companies," in September, 1904, page 717, 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 215 

referring to the short-time farm loans in the United 
States, calls attention to the fact that on the average 
farm loans in this country run for a period of fifteen 
years, though on an average they are made for less 
than five years, thus imposing upon borrowers not only 
great annoyance, but also heavy expense for renewals 
of loans. 

Land-credit sj^stems vary somewhat in the duration 
of long-term loans. In France the maximum time for 
which a farm loan may be made is 75 years. In Ireland 
loans may be made for 68I/0 years, in Switzerland for 
57 years, in Germany 56l/o years, in Sweden 56V2 
years, in Russia 551/0 years, in Australia 541^ years, in 
Japan 50 years, in Italy 50 years, in Austria 42 years, 
in New Zealand 361/2 years, in Chile 33 years, and in 
Finland 30 years.* 

There are many advantages to the borrower in 
having a long-time mortgage loan system. Under it, 
on reasonable notice, he is entitled to pay the full 
amount of his loan at any time. For this privilege he 
pays no commission or bonus. He may pay all or any 
part of his debt at reasonable intervals. He is thus 
in a position to take advantage of any reduction in 
interest rates. If he makes a loan for $1,000 for fifty 
years, at 5 per cent, interest, and thereafter at any 
time the prevailing rate of interest lowers, he can re- 
borrow at the lower rate and pay oflF his original loan. 
On the other hand, if he borrows at 4 per cent., for 
fifty years, and the interest rate rises, the loan institu- 
tion cannot demand a higher rate. The long-time loan 
protects the farmer against misfortune. In farming, 

* Herrick, page 211. 



216 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

as in other lines of business, misfortune and hard times 
may come. Every country has unfavorable seasons. 
They may come in succession. The farmer contends 
with drouths, storms, floods, insects, and diseases in 
plant and animals. Without his fault a year's labor 
may be lost. There may come a series of years in which 
he fails to make a living. Financially he falls behind. 
Unexpectedly he finds himself in straitened financial 
circumstances. Under these circumstances he cannot 
pay a short-time mortgage, when it is due. Renewals 
are often difficult to secure. Sometimes they can be 
secured only on the payment of a large commission and 
higher rates of interest. With a long-time farm mort- 
gage the farmer has ample time to recoup his losses. 
In long-time loans there is a lifetime in which to 
pay the principal. Annual payments are small. 
Borrowers have time to tide over failures, misfortunes, 
unforeseen and unexpected reverses and losses. The 
peace of mind which these privileges afford is worth 
much to the borrower and his family. The man carry- 
ing a long-term mortgage loan is a better citizen than 
the one who lives constantly in fear of foreclosure, 
ejectment, and loss of home. This is an asset to the 
community and the State. Under the short-term mort- 
gage loan practice in vogue in this country the bor- 
rowers are pressed to the limit to meet the payment of 
the principal of their debts. They and their families 
are kept under constant strain. Every effort is put 
forth. Every member of the family must sacrifice. 
The children are denied educational advantages. They 
are cut off from opportunities of greater usefulness. 
Even if the borrower succeeds in meeting his obliga- 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 217 

tion when due, the cost has been too great. A long-term 
mortgage loan system will, therefore, become a factor 
in social uplift, in conserving and improving the 
physical strength of our farming population, in ex- 
tending to them better facilities for intellectual de- 
velopment, and in enlarging, broadening, and multi- 
plying their opportunities in life. The long-time farm 
mortgage loan enables the borrower to do better farm- 
ing. He will have additional funds to enlarge his 
farming operations, to provide better machinery, im- 
plements, and tools, to acquire more live stock, to erect 
more suitable farm buildings, to plant orchards, grow 
timber, reclaim unproductive lands, and to acquire 
many other things which will make the farm more pro- 
ductive, more profitable, and more attractive. The 
long-term farm loan will enable the average farmer 
greatly to reduce the amount of his personal short-time 
indebtedness, which he now owes his local banker, or 
merchant from whom he buys supplies on time. These 
short-time loans are on personal or chattel security ; 
ordinarily they run at a high rate of interest. With 
longer time in which to meet the farm-mortgage in- 
debtedness, the farmer will have a greater surplus of 
funds. More generally, he will be a cash customer for 
the merchant. To a larger extent he becomes a de- 
positor in the local bank, which will reap a profit in 
loaning his funds to others. Here, it might be added, 
it is that the establishment of a long-term system of 
farm land mortgage credit will benefit, not injure, com- 
mercial banks. The vast majority of these banks are 
comparatively small institutions, located in farm com- 
munities. They are almost entirely dependent upon 



218 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

agriculture. Any change in our farm-credit system 
which increases the production of the soil, enlarges 
farming operations, or augments the prosperity of the 
farmers, will add to the value of the capital stock of 
every bank located in a farming community, and will 
increase its dividends, surplus, and profits. The com- 
mercial banks should be enthusiastic supporters of the 
movement to give the farmers of the United States the 
very best system of land-credit that can be devised. 
Finally, the long-term farm mortgage is absolutely 
essential to meet the wants of tenants and other persons 
of limited means who wish to acquire farm homesteads. 
It is true that we do not have in this country liberated 
serfs or any class of farmers on a level with the 
peasants of some of the European countries. How- 
ever, about one third of our farmers are tenants. The 
census of 1910 shows that we had in this country 
6,361,502 farmers. Two million, three hundred fifty- 
four thousand, six hundred and seventy-six of these 
were tenants. It is not necessary to enter upon an 
argument to show the evils of farm tenancy. All 
thoughtful persons recognize the importance of en- 
couraging home-owning in both the country and city. 
One of the wisest things this country ever did was to 
dedicate the public domain to provide homes for the 
homeless. There was a time when some of our promi- 
nent statesmen contended that primarily the public 
domain should be used as a source of revenue to the na- 
tional government. For some years it was so used. 
The free homestead law did not pass without a struggle. 
It was passed by both Houses of Congress once, and 
vetoed by one of our Presidents. The measure finally 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 219 

became a law and received the approval of Abraham 
Lincoln. Vast millions of dollars were thus diverted 
from the national treasury. Indirectly these funds 
flowed back into the treasury in far greater abundance ; 
we became a greater and stronger nation ; and our 
citizenship was strengthened in loyalty, fidelity, and 
devotion to the principles of our free government. With 
the cream of our public domain already gone, this gov- 
ernment should enter vigorously upon a plan to pro- 
mote home-owning among our citizenship. Our task 
is not so great or so difficult as that which confronted 
many of the European countries. We do not have to 
deal with problems which confronted Russia when she 
liberated her 22,000,000 serfs. We do not need to 
use a thousand millions of dollars in funds of this 
government which England will probably finally expend 
in acquiring homes for the peasants of Ireland. It 
will not be necessary for us to authorize the expropri- 
ation of lands in private ownership to secure homes 
for our tenants and for others who wish to acquire 
farm homesteads. If we establish a proper system of 
long-term mortgage loans, modeled after the best sys- 
tems of Europe, with reasonable aid in the funds or 
credit of the national government, the tenancy problem 
in the United States will solve itself. And as the years 
shall go by we shall see through the reports of our 
decennial census that proportionately our farm tenants 
are growing less, that we are making substantial 
progress in reclaiming waste and unproductive lands, 
and that millions of our people through long-term 
mortgage credit have become independent, self-respect- 
ing, happy, patriotic farm-home owners. 



220 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

3. The Bonds and Debentures. One of the most im- 
portant discoveries in the world was the invention of 
the farm-mortgage bond or debenture as an instrument 
to promote land-credit. There never has been a suc- 
cessful system of land-credit established in any coun- 
try that does not utilize the mortgage bond or deben- 
ture as an instrument to mobilize and liquefy land 
values. Through the mortgage bond or debenture the 
farm mortgage has been made easily negotiable, and 
put in such a form that the holder may realize thereon 
immediately. The mortgage bond and the debenture 
in effect are the same. The term "mortgage bond" is 
used to indicate bonds or securities secured by certain 
specified and designated mortgages. The "debenture'* 
is an obligation of a bank or other institution, secured 
not by a number of specific mortgages, but by the gen- 
eral assets of the institution issuing the debenture. For 
instance, the Credit Fonder of France estimates that it 
will need $50,000,000 additional money on which to 
make farm mortgage loans. Under the law it may issue 
and sell $50,000,000 in debentures even before it makes 
the loans, while a bank, issuing mortgage bonds, would 
first make the loans, and place the mortgages in trust 
as a special security for the bonds issued thereon. Thus 
the designated mortgages become the chief security for 
a certain issue of bonds, and the institution must keep 
deposited in trust farm mortgages to secure its bonds 
in an amount equal to the total of bonds issued. The 
bonds must not exceed the amount of mortgages de- 
posited in trust to secure their payment. If a mort- 
gage is paid, another mortgage of equal face value must 
be deposited in trust in lieu of it. In principle and in 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 221 

practice the mortgage bond and debenture serve the 
same purpose. The Lands chaf ten of Germany issue 
debentures. Their debentures in amount always cor- 
respond with the amount of the mortgages held by the 
LandscJiaft. This must be true because the Landschaft 
does not pay the borrower the cash, but simply delivers 
to him bonds in an amount equal to his mortgage. The 
borrower takes the bonds and disposes of them him- 
self. He may sell them to one or more individuals, or 
to a bank, or through the bank of the Landschaft, 
which has been in many cases organized especially to 
aid borrowers to dispose of their bonds. The joint- 
stock mortgage banks pay their loans in cash. They 
issue mortgage bonds, which are secured by designated 
farm mortgages of an equal amount. These mort- 
gages are invariably deposited in trust to secure the 
payment of the bonds. The specific mortgages de- 
posited in trust are not the sole security for the pay- 
ment of mortgage bonds. The mortgage banks are re- 
quired to set aside certain reserve or guaranty funds 
to provide against losses from the non-payment of the 
principal or interest on mortgages held in trust. 
Finally, of course, the capital of the mortgage bank, 
its surplus, and all of its assets would be used, if 
necessary, to redeem any outstanding mortgage bond. 
Generally, of course, the bondholders have a special 
and prior lien over other creditors upon the mort- 
gages deposited in trust to secure bonds issued thereon. 
The bond and debenture are the farm mortgage in an- 
other form. The farm-loan institutions collect farm 
mortgages, and then, by the authority of law and 
under governmental supervision, change their form into 



222 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

a security suitable to the needs and wants of investors, 
large or small, and in form and character correspond- 
ing to securities of all other kinds, familiar to the finan- 
cial world. The farm mortgages lie in safe seclusion. 
The bond and debenture, their representatives, are out 
"in company," commanding recognition even above the 
best industrial securities, and selling practically upon 
a par with bonds issued by the greatest and strongest 
government of Europe. 

The change of farm mortgages into bonds or de- 
bentures is like the process of mining, modifying, and 
purifying minerals. Iron, copper, lead, zinc, silver, and 
gold, as taken from the mines, are not suitable for cam- 
merce, but through various processes these minerals are 
refined and made in form to meet the needs of com- 
merce, industry, the arts, and the innumerable wants of 
mankind. So through mortgage bonds or debentures 
farm mortgages are changed in form, modified and re- 
fined, and made to conform to the needs of investors, 
banks, and credit institutions, to serve agriculture, and 
to contribute materially to the welfare of our farmers 
and all other classes of our citizens. 

The bonds and debentures of the European land- 
credit institutions are payable at no fixed time. The 
holder and owner of a mortgage bond or debenture can 
never demand its payment. The institution which 
issues the bond or debenture may recall and redeem the 
bonds at its pleasure. The bonds and debentures are 
redeemed by issuing institutions in the same ratio that 
mortgages are paid. This is obligatory upon land- 
credit institutions. The outstanding bonds must never 
exceed the amount of unpaid, existing mortgages. The 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 223 

bonds or debentures to be retired are determined by 
some system of drawing. Bonds and debentures must be 
redeemed at par. The fact that there is no fixed time for 
the payment of the bonds and debentures at first wouhl 
appear to be a serious objection thereto. But this, how- 
ever, is not true. These bonds and debentures are highly 
liquid securities. They are generally payable to bearer. 
They are transferable by mere delivery. They are 
easily negotiated and assigned. They may be used as 
collateral security for loans. They are regarded as 
gilt-edged security. Perhaps more than any other 
security they are like money itself. Indeed, the effort 
to make land the basis for money, the circulating 
medium of the country, appears to be responsible for 
the invention of the land debenture. The owner of a 
mortgage bond or debenture is not concerned as to the 
time it will be paid by the issuing institution. He may 
at any time realize cash therefor. Whenever he wishes 
to change the form of his investment, he can do so with- 
out any material loss, because there are always buyers 
for these securities. 

4. Amortization Payments. All the land-credit in- 
stitutions of Europe, for long-time loans, require the 
principal to be paid by annual or semi-annual pay- 
ments. Usually the payments are made semi-annually. 
These are called amortization payments. Amortiza- 
tion means "the extinction or reduction of a debt 
through a sinking fund." To amortize a debt signifies 
to destroy, kill, or extinguish it by means of a sinking 
fund. The small annual payments made by borrowers 
are placed in a sinking fund. A sinking fund is a fund 
that is "instituted and invested in such a manner that 



224 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

its gradual accumulations will enable it to meet and 
wipe out a debt at its maturity." The land-credit in- 
stitutions issue bonds or debentures in amounts cor- 
responding to the aggregate value of their mortgages. 
These bonds or debentures on their face are the debt of 
the institution issuing them. Primarily the bonds and 
debentures are the debt of the borrowers, who have 
executed and delivered their mortgages to land-credit 
corporations. Interest must be paid on these bonds and 
debentures. Ultimately the principal of the bonds 
must be paid. Tho mortgagors must pay both the in- 
terest and principal and in addition must contribute an 
additional fund to meet the cost of operation, or ad- 
ministration charges, including whatever profits are 
made. The land-credit institution, whatever be its 
name or character, acts merely as the agent of the bor- 
rowers. It is merely an intermediary between borrow- 
ers and investors. Even if it be a non-profit-sharing 
institution, it contributes nothing to the payment of 
principal, interest, or administration charges. But to 
enable the borrowers to meet the obligations they owe 
the credit institutions, and to make it possible for these 
institutions to extinguish their bonded indebtedness, 
which they have incurred to secure funds with which to 
make loans to farmers, a sinking fund is created, to' 
which every borrower contributes a certain definite and 
fixed sum, payable annually or semi-annually. These 
sinking-fund payments are either invested for the use 
and benefit of borrowers or are used in redeeming out- 
standing bonds or debentures. The use of amortization 
payments to extinguish long-time farm loans is a 
feature of the land-credit systems of Europe of the 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 225 

highest importance. The long-time loan, the mortgage- 
bond or debenture, and the amortization payments 
are the triple combination which is in the main 
responsible for the success of all existing systems of 
land-credit. The land-credit systems of Europe re- 
quire that borrowers shall pay at least one half of one 
per cent, per annum upon the principal of their debt. 
The payment of this amount annually will liquidate the 
debt in fifty-six and one half years. The advantages 
of paying a debt by small annual payments are many. 
In the first place it stimulates thrift. It encourages 
systematic saving. It is the only method by which the 
average person of small means can acquire and pay for 
a farm-home. Only institutions authorized to make 
long-time loans and issue and sell long-time bonds or 
debentures can make loans payable in small annual 
payments. The individual money lender would not 
care to accept the payment of the principal of a loan 
in driblets. Land-mortgage institutions may accept 
small payments, because the funds which they use in 
making loans are borrowed from investors through the 
sale of long-time bonds or debentures. Small annual or 
semi-annual payments, contributed by numerous bor- 
rowers, pouring into a common treasury, with regular- 
ity, precision, and certainty, create a fund ample to 
liquidate at maturity the bond or debenture indebted- 
ness of the largest land-credit institution. 

5. Absolute Security of Bonds and Debentures. 
The success of any land-credit system depends upon the 
absolute security of the bonds and debentures issued 
by the corporations empowered to operate the business. 
The bonds and debentures run for long years. Gen- 



226 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

erally, under European land-credit systems, there is no 
fixed time for their maturity. In duration they live 
beyond the life time of a generation. The active man- 
agers of an institution at the time a series of bonds is 
issued may not live to see them all paid. The sale of 
bonds and debentures is the source through which the 
funds come to provide agriculture with its credit. The 
streams of credit would soon cease to flow into the 
treasury of the land-credit institutions, if there were 
the least doubt about the absolute safety of their se- 
curities. Other defects in a land-credit system may be 
overlooked. This or that may distinguish one system 
from another. One system may be successful in one 
country ; a different one may prosper in another coun- 
try. One may be better or worse than the other. None 
of them can be permanent or successful unless the in- 
vesting public has perfect confidence in the securities 
offered to investors. In founding land-credit institu- 
tions, European countries have exercised the highest 
diligence to insure the safety of mortgage bonds and 
debentures. Every reasonable precaution and safe- 
guard has been utilized. In the old Landschaften the 
principle of unlimited liability was adopted. In later 
years, some of the Landschaften have abandoned this 
idea. Where this has been done, other safeguards have 
been substituted. The amount of a loan upon a farm is 
limited to a certain percentage of the appraised value 
of the farm. Appraisements are conservative. Definite 
and fixed rules are applied in ascertaining the actual 
value of the land mortgaged. The loan institutions 
carefully inspect property during the lifetime of the 
loan. Any serious deterioration in the value of prop- 



EUROPEAN LAND-CREDITS 227 

erty makes the mortgage subject to foreclosure. Pro- 
vision is made to remove all question of title to the 
mortgaged property. Many of the loan institutions 
have special privileges in the steps necessary to enforce 
payment. The officers of the Landschaften of Ger- 
many are clothed with executive, administrative, and 
judicial powers, such as are exercised by courts and 
public officials. The law limits and restricts the busi- 
ness of all land-credit institutions. Officers are re- 
quired to make frequent reports. Governmental in- 
spection is authorized. In the internal administration 
of these institutions, one officer acts as a check upon an- 
other. Some provision is made in all institutions for 
the accumulation of reserves and guaranty funds, de- 
signed especially to meet losses through non-payment of 
interest and principal of any loan. All of which are 
essential. A bond or debenture of doubtful security 
cannot be sold. This is not all. The safety of the bond 
or debenture affects the rate of interest on the bond. 
The safer the security, the lower the interest. To se- 
cure high interest, some investors may purchase a 
bond or debenture of questionable security. But a se- 
curity with a low rate of interest cannot be sold in 
large quantities unless it is regarded as absolutely safe. 
In establishing land-credit institutions for the United 
States, "safety first" would be an excellent motto. In 
the inauguration of a new land-credit system in the 
United States, bonds and debentures must be made se- 
cure. The farmer possesses the land which in itself is 
absolute security for the money which will be loaned to 
him. That security must not be vitiated, impaired, or 
deteriorated by the corporation — whatever may be Its 



228 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

title or name — brought into existence by the national 
government to collect and market the security the 
farmer presents. The farmer — not the land bank — is 
most deeply and vitally interested in the safety of the 
mortgage bonds issued. It has been demonstrated by 
European experience that the principle of unlimited lia- 
bility is not essential to the safety of land securities. 
For many reasons, this feature would be objectionable 
to American farmers. Being unnecessary, it should not 
be adopted in this country. In many of the European 
countries, the provincial, State or imperial governments 
guarantee the payment of bonds or debentures issued 
by the public land-credit institutions. Such guaranty 
has not been extended to private, joint-stock, profit- 
sharing, land-mortgage institutions. Without discuss- 
ing here the question of government aid, the Federal 
government, in assuming the responsibility of creating 
national land-credit institutions, must, above all things 
else, see to it that the bonds or debentures issued by 
these institutions shall be securities about the safety of 
which there can be and will be no question. 



XVIII 

REDUCING THE COST OF LIVING— 
A COMMON PROBLEM* 

Edwin T. Meredith 

There is an idea, fairly widespread and deep rooted, 
that reducing the cost of living is essentially an agri- 
cultural problem. Reducing the cost of living, however, 
is a mutual problem and if satisfactory results are se- 
cured business men must also give their attention to the 
problem. Getting food delivered at the kitchen door at 
the right price does not depend solely on how much of 
it the farmer produces or what price the farmer gets for 
it. It depends much on the expedition and economy 
with which it is handled between the farmer's wagon 
and the pantry. It is a problem common to the whole 
people, and it cannot be solved unless business and 
labor, as well as agriculture, put their best intelligence 
into the solution. 

The consumer, of course, pays the production cost 
of farm products — except when the farmer sells his 
products for less than it costs to produce them. Pro- 
duction costs are high, and the farmer must get satis- 
factory prices, or he will have to go out of business. 
If he goes out of business, both he and the city man will 
suffer. 

* From The Independent, by permission of the author and the publishers, 
the Indei>endent Corporation. 

229 



230 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Whom the Consumer Supports 
When the farmer has been paid for his product, the 
bill that the consumer must pay is by no means made 
out. The consumer pays the freight from the farm 
to the city market. He pays for all back hauling and 
round-about hauling that result in so much delay and 
so much loss of perishable products. He pays for 
terminal facilities — and, if those facilities are not what 
they should be, he pays a penalty because of inefficiency. 
He pays the profits of the commission man, of the 
wholesale merchant, of the retail grocer, as well as the 
wages and salaries of the boy who drives the delivery 
wagon and of everybody who has anything to do with 
the product from the time it leaves the farm until it 
reaches the kitchen. Every inefficient man in that chain 
of distribution, every man who draws a salary or 
wages for work not needed, every man who does not 
render honest service, is adding a burden to what the 
consumer must pay for his food. 

When we have taken the lost motion out of distribu- 
tion and properly emphasized production in the fac- 
tory and on the farm, we will have gone a far way 
toward reducing the price that the ultimate consumer 
pays for his necessities. The farmer and the agencies 
that operate for and with the farmer, of course, are 
powerless to do that alone. It can only be done with 
the help of business men and laboring men everywhere. 

Arithmetic of System Needs Revision 
Distribution, of course, is just as essential as pro- 
duction, but, if out of every ten men, we have six en- 
gaged in distribution and only four in production, 



REDUCING THE COST OF LIVING 231 

there can be consumed by each of the ten men only four 
tenths of what, one man can produce. If six of the ten 
are engaged in production and only four in distribu- 
tion, each man can have for his own use six tenths 
instead of four tenths of what one man can produce. 
The principle applies to the 110,000,000 people in the 
United States in exactly the same way that it would 
apply to ten men marooned on an island. We cannot 
consume more than we produce, and the quantity pro- 
duced by the whole tends to decrease with the increase 
in the number of men unnecessarily engaged in the dis- 
tribution of the products. 

I am not prepared to say that any given number of 
men should give up merchandizing or the place they 
may now occupy in distribution and become factory 
laborers or miners or"^farmers, but I am prepared to say 
that, in justice to himself and to his country, every 
person ought to see to it that there are no drones in 
his own hive to add to the cost of distributing what the 
farmer and factory produce, and that every so-called 
laborer should see that he contributes just as largely 
as possible to the sum total of production, no matter 
what article he is making or what duty he may be en- 
gaged upon. 

The farmer, of course, must produce — and of course 
he will produce. He gets paid only for what he pro- 
duces. But there is one thing which will take him out 
of production and that is to be obliged to sell the prod- 
uct of his year's labor and investment for a price 
which does not enable him and his family to live as well 
as his friends in the city who devote their money and 
energies in other directions. 



232 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

"Take Up the Slack," Says the Farmer 
The farmers ask, naturally enough, that the high 
cost of living be approached by all the people as a 
common problem. They ask that those engaged in dis- 
tribution "take up the slack," eliminate the lost motion, 
and refrain from putting so great a burden on produc- 
tion. They ask that the banks, the railroads, wholesale 
houses, retail establishments and factories — all of 
which they recognize as vital necessities — be put on the 
highest plane of efficiency. They look to the factory 
executive to speed up his operations so that two days' 
labor instead of three, if possible, will go into a given 
article which he finds necessary to his comfort or the 
conduct of his farming operations. Without taking 
anything from the manufacturer's profit, the farmer's 
margin is increased because of the fact that his equip- 
ment and supplies are thereby reduced in cost, his pro- 
duction is stimulated, and he is encouraged to stay on 
the farm. The farmer asks these things of business. 

The farmer asks also that the laborers in the mine, 
the factory, and the mill make an effort comparable to 
his to see that there is just as little labor expense as 
possible in each article turned out by their hands. 

If labor in every line produces all it can produce, if 
manufacturers, jobbers, and dealers recognize the harm 
that must ultimately come from profiteering upon the 
farmer and content themselves with a reasonable profit, 
an important contribution will have been made to the 
solution of the problem of reducing the cost of living, 
to the good of all concerned. On the other hand, if 
these things are not done, if farming be not as re- 
munerative, pleasant, and attractive as other lines of 



REDUCING THE COST OF LIVING 233 

endeavor, conditions will not improve. More and more 
will the young men leave the farms. More and more 
will the older men become discouraged. Less and less 
will there be of farm produce to divide among the whole 
people for their sustenance and higher and higher will 
go the price of that which is produced. 

Problem for Business Men 
I hope I have made it clear that, in my opinion, the 
business men of America must recognize the problems 
of the farmer as their problems also. They must have 
a real understanding of the farmer's place in our na- 
tional economy and they must help to provide and 
maintain facilities which will aid him in his business. 
The Federal Farm Loan Bank, for instance, is of great 
advantage to the farmers of America, making money 
available to them on favorable terms, without com- 
missions, without renewal charges, giving them long 
time that they may plan ahead where necessary, and 
financing them to carry on the fundamental activity of 
the country ; and yet an assault is being made upon this 
system. The success of the opponents of the Federal 
Farm Loan Banks would be a blow to agriculture in 
America and would ultimately result in harm to all. 
The business men must interest themselves in retaining 
for the farmer this aid and help in securing others. 

On the production side the farmer has aiding him all 
the accumulated knowledge of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, the agricultural colleges of 
the several states, and the experiment stations. The 
extension machinery of these institutions, functioning 
through the county agricultural agents and the home 



234 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

demonstration agents in a great majority of the agri- 
cultural counties of the country, makes the information 
immediately available and directly applicable to the in- 
dividual farmer. The county agents and home demon- 
stration agents, while not neglecting production and 
utilization, are giving more and more attention to the 
economic end of the farm business, and more attention 
to buying and selling in cooperation with the Bureau of 
Markets and the Office of Farm Management in the De- 
partment of Agriculture. 

Selling the Second Blade 
It is desirable to make two blades of grass grow 
where but one grew before, but to encourage this you 
must have a market where you can sell the second blade 
at a profit. The farmers of the United States have 
been able to increase the number of blades and they are 
beginning to do something on their own account toward 
getting the extra blades to a profitable market. The 
farmer would prefer to devote his entire time to pro- 
duction. He has learned, however, that he is not made 
prosperous simply by what he produces but by what he 
can dispose of at a fair price, and he is giving more 
thought to the distribution end of his business than 
ever before, notwithstanding, as I say, that he would 
no doubt prefer to devote his whole time and thought 
to production. 

I speak of these things by way of conveying to the 
business man this assurance: The farmer is not with- 
out the inclination or the necessary aids to do his part 
in reducing the cost of living. He is anxious to do his 
share and more, and he seeks the cooperation, the sup- 



REDUCING THE COST OF LIVING 235 

port, and good-will of the business world. All those 
who work together in strengthening agriculture and 
making it attractive, and this necessitates making it 
profitable, will aid in strengthening and making 
permanent the very foundation of our whole economic 
structure and will render a real service to the Nation 
as a whole. 



XIX 

AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT AND THE 
HIGH COST OF LIVING * 

Herbert Hoover 

The high cost of living is a temporary economic 
problem, surrounded by high emotions. The agricul- 
tural industry is a permanent economic problem, sur- 
rounded by many dangers. We are now entering into 
our regular four-year period of large promises to suf- 
ferers of all kinds. Except to demagogues and to the 
fellows who farm the farmer, there are no easy 
formulas ; nevertheless, there are constructive forces 
that can be put in motion — and these are good times to 
get them talked about. 

As bearing upon some suggestion of constructive 
solution, I wish to establish and analyze certain 
propositions. Amongst other things they involve a 
clear understanding of the bearings of different seg- 
ments of the total price of food between the different 
links in the chain of production and distribution : 

First: That the high cost of living is due largely 
to inflation and shortage in world production ; specula- 
tion is an incident of these forces, not the cause. 

Second: That the farmer's prices are fixed by the 
impact of world wholesale prices ; that such prices bear 
only a remote relation to his costs of production. 

* Reprinted from the Saturday Evening Post. Copyright, 1920, by the 
Curtis Publishing Company. By permission of the author and the publishers. 

236 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 237 

Third: That any increase or decrease in the cost 
of placing the farmer's products in the hands of the 
wholesaler is a deduction from or addition to the farm- 
er's prices ; that is, an expansion or contraction of the 
margin between the farm and wholesale prices makes an 
increase or decrease in the farmer's return. 

Fourth: That increase or decrease in the cost of 
distributing food from the wholesaler to the door of the 
ultimate consumer is an addition or deduction pre- 
dominantly to the consumer's cost ; that is, the margin 
between the wholesaler and consumer in its increases or 
decreases is largely an addition to or subtraction from 
the consumer's price. 

Fifth: That these two margins in most of our com- 
modities except grain were, before the war, the largest 
in the world; that they have grown abnormally during 
the war, except during the year of food control. 

Sixth: That analysis of the character of the margin 
between the farmer and wholesaler will show that de- 
creases in price find immediate reflection on the farmer, 
while immediate increases in price are absorbed by the 
trades between, and the farmer gets but a lagging 
increase. 

Seventh: That an analysis of these margins will 
show that they can be constructively diminished, but 
that, regrettable as it is, the prosecution of profiteers 
will not do it. 

Eighth: That the problem must be solved, if our 
agriculture is to be maintained and if the balance be- 
tween agriculture and general industry is to be pre- 
served so as to prevent our becoming dependent upon 



238 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

imports for food, with a train of industrial and national 
dangers. 

That short world production has been one of the 
causes of rising prices cannot be denied. The warring 
powers of Europe took sixty million men from produc- 
tion — nearly one third their productive man power — 
and put it to destruction. They have lived to a great 
degree by drain of commodities from the United States 
and thus brought their shortage to our shores. They 
have not yet altogether recovered from the holidays of 
victory, the gloom of defeat, the persuasive "isms" that 
would find production without work, the destruction of 
their economic unity, transportation, credits, and other 
fundamentals necessary to maintain production. It 
will be some time before they do recover. In the mean- 
time, they are perforce reducing their consumption — 
their standard of living — because they have largdy ex- 
hausted their securities, commodities, or credit to con- 
tinue the borrowing of our commodities for their own 
short production, as during the war. The exchange 
barometer is to-day witness of the end of this procedure 
of living on borrowed money. In passing, it may be 
mentioned that exchange is no more a cause of their 
inability to buy from us than is the barometer the 
cause of blizzards. The storm is that they have mostly 
exhausted their credits and they have not recovered 
production so as to offer commodities to us in exchange 
for ours. 

Our own industrial production, as distinguished from 
agricultural production, has fallen rapidly since the 
armistice. Some of the fall is due to war weariness, 
some to "isms" that have infected us from Europe, 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 239 

some to the natural abandonment of high-cost pro- 
duction brought into play during the war, -some to 
strikes, and a host of other wastes. Our consumption 
has greatly increased after the restraint of war. De- 
creases had not penetrated our agricultural community 
up to the 1919 harvest, nor will such decrease arise 
from these causes, but, as I will set out later, forces are 
entering that will decrease our agricultural produc- 
tion. 

Our production in nearly all important food com- 
modities except sugar is in surplus of our own need. It 
only becomes a shortage affecting prices under the 
drain of exports. Therefore it is the world shortage 
that is affecting our price levels, not, so far, a de- 
ficiency for our own needs. 

So far as relief from price Influence by shortage in 
production is concerned, it may arise in two ways : 
First, slowly through gradual recuperation in world 
production. Second, by compulsory reduction of con- 
sumption in Europe through their inability to pay us 
by commodities, gold, or credits. This latter has been 
very evident through the drop in exchange and en- 
gagements for exports during the past few weeks. 

The cost of food to the consumer is divided among 
the farmers on one hand and storage, manufacture, 
jobbers, wholesalers, retailers, and transportation on 
the other. I believe these charges between the farmer 
and consumer fall into two distinct groups: The 
charges comprising the margin between the farmer 
and wholesaler, which mainly concern the farmer; and 
the charges between the wholesaler and consumer, which 
mainly concern the consumer. To establish this di- 



240 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

vision, it is necessary to analyze shortly the datum 
point by which price is determined. 

The diet of the American people from a nutritional 
— not financial — standpoint comprises the following 
articles and proportions : 

Wheat and rye 29-5 

Pork products 15.7 

Dairy products 15.3 

Beef products 6.3 

Corn products 7.0 

Sugar products 13.2 

Vegetable oils 3.6 

89.6 
All others, including potatoes 10.4 

100.0 

The wholesale price of about ninety per cent, of our 
food in normal times is only remotely determined by 
the cost of production, but mostly by world condi- 
tions. 

We export a surplus of most commodities among the 
ninety per cent., and the prices of exports are de- 
termined by competition with other world supplies in 
the European wholesale markets. Those items in this 
ninety per cent, that we do not export are influenced 
by the same forces, because in normal times we import 
them on any considerable variation in price and the 
wholesaler naturally buys in the cheapest market. Even 
milk is to a considerable degree controlled by butter 
imports in normal times. When we import butter it re- 
leases more milk to competition. This cannot be said 
to such extent of the most of the odd ten per cent., be- 
cause they are largely perishables that do not stand 
overseas transport, and consequently rise and fall more 
nearly directly upon local supply and demand. 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 241 

Some economists will at once argue that if prices 
arc unprofitable to the farmer the situation will correct 
itself by diminished production and, consequently, a 
general rise in the world level of prices. In the abstract 
this is true, but as a matter of fact the surplus which 
our farmers contribute for export is only a small por- 
tion of their total production or of the world pool, yet 
the total of the world pool operating through this minor 
segment makes the prices for a large part of their com- 
modities. Therefore, the effect in normal times of re- 
striction in production in any one country does not 
affect price so much as theoretic argument would be- 
lieve. 

The farmer must plant if he would live, and he must 
plant long in advance of his knowledge of prices or 
world production. He can make no contracts in ad- 
vance of his planting, nor can he cease operations on 
the day prices fall too low. He is driven on, year after 
year, in hope and necessity, and will continue over long 
periods with a standard return below rightful living be- 
cause he has no other course — and always has hopes. 
He will vary fairly rapidly from one commodity to an- 
other — from wheat to other grains, for instance — ^but 
he mostly raises his maximum of something. In the 
long run of decreasing prices he would undoubtedly 
reach so low a standard as to cease production. Then 
comes a comparatively short period of higher prices in 
some commodity ; production is again stimulated and 
followed by long intervals of low standards. As shown 
by the following table, on the whole, the farmer has not 
been underpaid during the war, but the currents again 
are turmng against him : 



242 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Department INDEX OF PRICES AT THE FARM IN 
of Labor PRINCIPAL PRODUCE STATES 

wholesale AU 

index of all farm. 

commodities produce Hogs Corn Wheat Cotton 

Prewar 100 100 100 100 100 100 

First quarter 1918.. 187 200 213 224 254 24G 

Last quarter 1918.. 206 204 223 220 258 246 

First quarter 1919.. 200 202 225 228 264 215 

Last quarter 1919.. 230 206 178 216 277 268 

It will be seen that the farmer enjoyed prices 
equivalent to and higher than the general level up to 
the last six months. He is now, however, falling be- 
hind in some important products. Unlike the indus- 
trial workers, he is unable to demand an adjustment of 
his income to the changed index of living. 

For the moment, what I wish only to establish is that 
the farmer's prices are not based upon any conception 
of costs of production, but upon forces in which he 
has no voice. He can never organize to put his indus- 
try on a *'cost plus" basis as industrial producers do, 
and a remedy must be found elsewhere. 

As stated, the margin between the farmer and con- 
sumer falls into two divisions — one of which predomi- 
nantly affects the farmer and the other the consumer. 
It is really the wholesale prices that govern the farmer, 
rather than retail prices, for it is in wholesale prices 
that the farmer competes with the world. As the prices 
paid by the wholesaler are mostly fixed by overseas 
trade at the datum point on the Atlantic seaboard or 
in Europe, then if the margins between the wholesaler 
and the farmer are unduly large, or increase, it is 
mostly to the farmer's detriment. For instance, as the 
price of his wheat in normal times is made in Liverpool, 
any increase in handling comes out of the farmer's 
price. Likewise, as the wholesale butter price is made 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 243 

by the import of Danish butter into New York, any in- 
crease in the numbers or charges between our farmer 
and the wholesale buyer comes to a considerable de- 
gree out of the farmer. 

As the datum point of determining prices is at the 
wholesaler, the accretion by the charges for distribu- 
tion from that point forward to the consumer's door 
will not affect the farmer, but does affect the consumer. 
When competition decreases through shortage the con- 
sumer pays the added profits of these trades. 

Studies of the cost of our distribution system, made 
by the Food Administration during the war, established 
two prime conditions. The first is that the margins 
between our farmers and the wholesaler in commodities 
— other than grain in some instances — are, even in 
normal times, the highest in any civilized state — fully 
twenty-five per cent, higher than in most European 
countries. The expensiveness of our chain of distribu- 
tion in most commodities in normal times, as compared 
with Continental countries, is due partly to the wide 
distances of the producing areas from the dominating 
consuming areas, but there are other contributing 
forces that can be remedied. 

In Europe the great public markets in the cities 
bring farmer and consumer closely together in many 
commodities, but in the United States the bulk of prod- 
ucts are too far afield for this. The farmer must mar- 
ket through a long chain of manufacturers, brokers, 
jobbers, and wholesalers with or without their own dis- 
tribution system, who must establish a clientele of direct 
retailers ; and thus public markets, except in special 
locations and in comparatively few commodities, have 



244. ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

not been successful. Another major factor in our costs 
of distribution is the increasing demand for expensive 
service by our consumers. There are many other fac- 
tors that bear on the problem and the economic results 
of our system wliich are discussed, together with some 
suggestions of remedy, later on. 

The second result of these studies was to show the 
great widening of this margin during the war. During 
the year of the Food Administration in active restraint 
on this margin there was an advance of six points in the 
wholesale index while the farmer's index moved up 
twenty-five points. Both before and after that period 
the two indexes moved up together. The same can be 
said of the margins between the wholesaler and the con- 
sumer. Taking the period of the war as a whole, the 
margin between the farmer and consumer has widened 
out to an extravagant degree. 

A good instance of a movement in margins is shown 
in flour in 1917. The farmer's average return for 
wheat of the 1916 harvest, as shown by the Department 
of Agriculture, was about .$1.42. As about four and 
one half bushels of wheat are required to make a barrel 
of flour, the farmer's share of the receipts from this 
harvest was about $6.40 per barrel. In 1917, before 
the Food Administration came into being, flour rose to 
$17.50 per barrel to the consumer, or, at that time, 
a margin of eleven dollars per barrel. During the ad- 
ministration the farmer received an average of about 
two dollars for wheat at the farm, or about nine dollars 
out of a barrel of flour. The consumer paid $12.50, 
the margin being about $3.50 per barrel. This in- 
crease in margins shows vividly in the higher priced 



SIX MONTHS 
1919 


1920 


$16.27 


$15.37 


37^ 


37.71 


21.06 


22.34 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 245 

foods ; for instance, pork products. If we take hogs at 
the railway station over the great hog states con- 
tiguous to Chicago as a basis, we find : 

1914 

Price of hogs in principal states 
per 100 pounds $7.45 

Price of cured products to con- 
sumer from 100 pounds hogs 18.97 

Margin between farmer and 
consumer 11.52 

Thus, while the farmer has gained about $7.92 in hi.s 
price, the margin has increased by $10,82 to the con- 
sumer, and incidentally, during the last year since 
food-control restraints were removed, the consumer has 
paid thirty cents more while the farmer got ninety 
cents less. These instances could be greatly multiplied. 

It is unfortunate that our national statistics do not 
permit a complete analysis of the distribution of margin 
between all the various groups in the chain between the 
farmer and consumer in different commodities. It 
would be helpful if we could take the farmers, railways, 
manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, and de- 
termine what proportion each receives. 

These margins between farmer and consumer are 
made up of a necessary chain of charges for transport, 
storage, manufacture, and distribution. The great 
majority of citizens who are engaged in the processes 
that go to make up this portion of food costs are em- 
ployed in an obviously essential economic function and 
they do not approach it in a spirit of criminality, but 
as a very necessary, proper, and honorable function. 
They have, since the European war began, rather over- 
enjoyed the result of economic forces that were not of 



246 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

their own creation. That a considerable margin is 
necessary to cover the legitimate costs of and profits on 
distribution is obvious. The only direction of inquiry is 
how they can be legitimately minimized. 

These margins, starting from the unduly high ex- 
pense of a faulty system, have increased not only 
legitimately, due to increased transportation, labor, 
rent, taxes, and increased interest upon the large capi- 
tal required ; but they have, except during the period 
of control, increased unduly beyond these necessities. 
There are two general characteristics of this margin 
that are of some interest. In the first instance, all of 
the transport, storage, manufacture, and handling is 
conducted upon a basis of cost plus either fixed returns 
or, as is more usually the case, a percentage of profit 
upon the whole cost of operation. Any distributing 
agency ceases to operate when it does not secure costs 
and a profit. Consequently, all these links put up a 
resistance to a curtailment of the margin which the 
farmer is unable, except by absolute exhaustion, to do 
against reduction of his price levels. If rapid falls in 
food prices occur, the farmer, at least in the first in- 
stance, has to stand most of the fall because he can- 
not quit. 

The farmer's costs of production relate to a period 
long prior to the fall. Thus, if wages are due to fall as 
a result of a fa,ll in food prices the farmer is always 
selling on the old basis of his costs. The farmer has 
but one turnover in the year. The middleman has 
several, and can thus adjust himself quickly. 

Second, the custom of many of these businesses is to 
operate upon a percentage of profit on the value of the 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 247 

commodities handled, even after deducting all their 
increased costs, interest, or other charges. When we 
have rising prices, therefore, a doubling of prices, for 
instance, tends to double profits on the same volume of 
commodities handled. In a rising market competitive 
pressures are much diminished and the dealer can as- 
sess his own profits to greater degree than usual. While 
the packers make a profit of, say, two cents on the 
dollar value of commodities, it represents double the 
profit per pound over pre-war, even after allowing sucli 
items as interest on the larger capital involved. 

Aside from the necessary rise in the margin that has 
grown out of the rise in cost of labor, rent, and so 
on, from inflation and world shortage, there are some 
causes which have accumulated to increase the margins 
between the farmer and the wholesaler and the whole- 
saler and the consumer that could be greatly mitigated. 

During the war, in order to restrain wild greed and 
profiteering in the then existing unlimited demand, 
margins between purchase and sale in the different 
manufacturing and handling trades were fixed in all the 
great commodities — iron, steel, cement, lumber, coal, 
and foodstuffs. The first task of the war was to secure 
production, and the margins were therefore fixed at 
such breadth as would allow the smaller high-cost manu- 
facturer and the smaller dealer to live. Otherwise the 
smaller competitors would have been extinguished, pro- 
duction would have been lost, and, worse yet, the larger 
low-cost operator would have been left with much in- 
flated monopoly. The excess-profits tax was levied as 
a sequent corrective to this necessary first step, so as 
to take the undue profits of the large producer back to 



248 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the public. It was a wise war measure, but the moment 
restraints on profits were taken off and there was a free 
and rising market ahead, the tax was added to prices 
by all the participants and passed on to the consumer, 
or deducted from the farmer when world levels crowded 
his prices down. It should have been repealed at the 
time the controls were abandoned, but our legislatures 
have been busy with other things, and in the meanwhile 
in food it not only increases the margin between the 
farmer and the consumer but tends, as stated above, to 
come out of the farmer to a large degree. It has other 
vicious results in that it stimulates dealers and manu- 
facturers to speculate their profits away In unsound 
business, rather than to pay them to the Government. 
It does sound well to tax the great manufacturers, but 
to make them the agency to collect taxes from the 
population is not altogether sound government. 

It is a very important tax to the Government, bring- 
ing as it does over a billion a year, and a place to put 
this load is not to be found easily. 

The income tax does not have so malign an effect, for 
it comes to a great extent from the individual and not 
from business. The present method of income tax, 
however, has some weaknesses. The same levy is made 
upon earned incomes as upon those that are unearned. 
The tax on earned incomes tends in certain cases to be 
passed on to the consumer or deducted from the farmer, 
and, besides, it is not just that a family living by giv- 
ing productive service to the community should pay the 
same as a family that contributes nothing by way of 
effort. A stiff tax on these latter might send them to 
work, and certainly induce economy. Moreover, the 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 249 

earner of income must provide for old age and depen- 
dents while the unearned-income taxpayer has this 
already. Altogether, it would seem the part of wisdom 
at least to increase the income tax on the larger un- 
earned income and decrease it on the earners. It is 
argued that this drives great incomes to evasion by 
investment in tax-free securities, which is probably 
true. We need more comparative figures than the 
Treasury statistics yet show to answer this point. In 
any event, relief to the earner would free his savings 
to invest in taxable securities, and we need of all things 
to stimulate the initiative of the saver. Income taxes, 
except when too high on earned incomes, do not destroy 
initiative, and every other government has, in taxing, 
recognized the essential difference between earned and 
unearned incomes. This distinction would generally 
relieve the range of smaller incomes, for they are mostly 
earned. 

The inheritance-tax field has not been fully exploited 
as yet. It cannot be deducted from either farmer or 
consumer, it does not affect the cost of living, it does 
not destroy initiative in the individual if it leaves large 
and proper residues for dependents. It does redis- 
tribute overswollen fortunes. It does make for equality 
of opportunity by freeing from the dead hand control 
of our tools of production. It reduces extravagance 
in the next generation and sends them to constructive 
service. It has a theoretic economic objection of being 
a dispersal of capital into income at the hands of the 
Government, but so long as the Government spends an 
equal amount on redemption of the debt or productive 
works even this argument no longer stands. 



250 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

We may need to come to some sort of increased con- 
sumption taxes in order to lift that part of excess 
profits and tax on earned income that cannot be very 
properly placed elsewhere. When it comes it should 
lie on other commodities than food, except perhaps 
sugar, one half of which is a luxury consumption. The 
ideal would be for it to be levied wholly on non-essentials 
in order that it should be a burden on luxury and not 
on necessity. This is no doubt difficult to classify. 
Jewelry and furs are easy to class, but where necessity 
leaves off and luxury begins in trousers is more difficult 
to determine. 

It requires no lengthy economic or moral argument 
as a platform for denunciation of all waste and useless 
expenditure. Some sane medium is needed between com- 
fort and luxury. Failing definition, and objection to 
blue laws, the theme must be taken into the area of 
moral virtues and becomes a proper subject for the 
spiritual stimulations of the church. There Is a 
psychology In luxury wherein we all buy high-priced 
things because they are high-priced, not because they 
add comfort — and this has contributed also to our high 
cost of living — for those who do it drive up prices on 
those who try to avoid it. From an economic point of 
view the only recipe is taxation as a device to make it 
expensive. 

More constructive than increasing taxes Is to take 
a holiday on governmental expenditures and relieve the 
taxpayer generally. If we could stave off a lot of 
expensive suggestions for a few years and secure more 
efficiency In what we must spend, our people could get 
ahead with the process of earning something to tax. 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 251 

It would at least be comforting to this great farming 
and business community. 

There is a great weakness in our present railwaj' 
situation bearing upon the farmer and consumer. 
Everyone knows of the annual shortage of cars during 
the crop-moving season. Few people, however, appre- 
ciate that this shortage of cars often amounts to a 
stricture in the free flow of commodities from the 
farmer to the consumer. The result is that the farmer, 
in order to sell his produce, often unknown to himself 
makes a sacrifice in price in local glut. The consumer 
is compelled at the other end to pay an increased price 
for foodstuffs due to the shortage in movement. The 
constant fluctuations in our grain exchanges locally or 
generally from this cause are matters of public record 
almost monthly. On one occasion a study was made 
under my administration into the effect of car short- 
age in the transportation of potatoes, and we could 
demonstrate by chart and figure that the margin be- 
tween the farmer and the consumer broadened 100 per 
cent, in periods of car shortage. Nor did the middle- 
man make this whole margin of profit, because -he was 
subjected to unusual losses and destruction, and took 
unusual risks in awaiting a market. The same phenom- 
enon was proved in a large way at the time of acute 
shortage of movement in corn and other grain. 

The usual remedy for this situation is insistence tliat 
the railways shall provide ample rolling stock, track- 
age, and terminals to take care of the annual peak load. 
We have fallen far behind in the provisions of even 
normal railway equipment during the war, and an ad- 
ditional 500,000 cars and locomotives are no doubt 



252 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

needed. Above a certain point, however, this imposes 
upon the railways a great investment in equipment for 
use during a comparatively short period of the year 
when many conmiodities synchronize to make the peak 
movement. The railways naturally wish to spread the 
movement over a longer period. The burden of equip- 
ment for short-time use will probably prevent their 
ever being able to take entire care of the annual delays 
in transport and stricture in market, although these 
can be greatly minimized. 

There is possible help in handling the peak load by 
improving the waterways from the Great Lakes to the 
Atlantic seaboard by way of the St. Lawrence River, 
so as to pass full seagoing cargoes. It has already 
been determined that the project is entirely feasible, 
and at comparatively moderate cost. The result would 
be to place every port on the Great Lakes on the seas. 
Fifteen states contiguous to the Lakes could find an 
outlet for a portion of their annual surplus quickly and 
more cheaply to the overseas markets than through the 
congested Eastern trunk rail lines. It would contribute 
materially to reduce this effectual stricture in the free 
flow of the farmer's commodities to the consumers. 

Of far greater importance, however, is the fact that 
the costs of transportation from the Lake ports to 
Europe would be greatly diminished, and this dimin- 
ished cost would go directly into the farmer's pockets. 
It is my belief that there is a saving here of five to six 
cents a bushel in the transportation of grain. Although 
a comparatively small proportion of our total grain 
production flows to Europe, I believe that the economic 
lift on this minor portion would raise the price of the 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 253 

whole grain production by the amount saved in trans- 
portation of this portion of it. The price of export 
wheat, rye; and barley — sometimes corn — usually hogs 
— in Chicago -at normal times is the Liverpool price, 
less transportation and other charges, and if we 
decrease tlie transport in a free market the farmer 
should get the difference. 

Not only should there be great benefits to the agri- 
cultural population but it should be a real benefit to 
our railways in getting them a better average load 
without the cost of maintaining the surplus equipment 
and personnel necessary to manage the peak load dur- 
ing the fall months. It has been computed that the 
capital saving in rolling stock alone would pay for the 
entire cost of this waterway improvement over a com- 
paratively few years. The matter also becomes of 
national importance in finding employment for tlie 
great national mercantile fleet that we have created. 

Another factor in transportation bearing upon the 
problem of marketing is the control by food manufac- 
turing and marketing concerns of refrigeration and 
other special types of cars. This special control has 
grown up largely because, owing to seasonal changes 
in regional occupation for these cars over different 
parts of the country, no one railway wished to provide 
sufficient special cars and service for use that may come 
its way only part of the year. The result has been to 
force the building up of a domination by certain con- 
cerns which control many of the cars and stifle free 
competition. Much the same results have been attained 
by special groups in control of stockyards and, in some 
cases, of elevators. Where such formal or informal 



254 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

monopolies grow up, they are public utilities and if the 
farmer is to have a free market they must be replaced 
by constructive public service. 

Every impediment to free marketing of produce 
either gives special privileges or increases the risks 
which the farmer must pay for in diminished returns. 
We have some commodities where manufacture has 
grown into such units that these units exert such an 
influence that they consciously or unconsciously affect 
the price levels of the farmer's produce. When a few 
concerns have the duty of manufacturing and storing 
the seasonal reserves of a single commodity they natur- 
ally reduce prices during the heavy-production season 
and increase them in the short season as a method of 
diminishing their risk and increasing profits. More- 
over, their tendency is often to sell the minor portion 
of their product that goes for export at lower than the 
domestic price in order to dispose of it without depress- 
ing local prices. They do not need to conspire, for 
there can be perfectly coincident action to meet the 
same economic currents. Such coincidence has much 
greater possibilities of general influence with a few con- 
cerns in the field than if there were many. 

The experience gained in the Food Administration 
on these problems during the war led to the feeling, 
expressed at that time, that such business should be 
confined to one line of activity, just as we have had to 
confine our railways, banks, and insurance companies. 
This is useful to prevent reliance being placed upon the 
profits of alternative products when engaged in stifling 
of competition, through selling below cost on some 
other item. Even this restriction may not prove to be 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 255 

sufficient protection to free market by free competition. 

I am not a believer in nationalization as the solution 
to this form of domination, but I am a believer in reg- 
ulation, if it should prove necessary. If experience 
proves we have to go to regulation, it is my belief that 
it should be confined to overswollen units and that the 
point of departure should not be the amount of capital 
employed but the proportion of a given commodity that 
is controlled. The point of departure must depend 
upon the special commodity and its ratio to the whole. 
When such a concern obtains such dimensions that it 
can influence prices or dominate public affairs, either 
with deliberation or innocence, then it must be placed 
under regulation and restraint. Our people have long 
since realized the advantage of large business operation 
in improving and cheapening the costs of manufacture 
and distribution, but when these operations have be- 
come so enlarged that they are able to dominate the 
community it becomes a social necessity that they shall 
be made responsible to the community. 

The test that should apply, therefore, is not the size 
of the institution or the volume of capital that it 
employs, but the proportion of the commodity that it 
controls in its operations. 

It is my belief that if this were made the datum point 
for regulation, and if regulation were made of a rigor- 
ous order, this pressure would result in such business 
keeping below the limit of regulation. Thus the auto- 
matic result would be the building up of a proper com- 
petition, because men in manufacturing would rather 
conduct a smaller business free of governmental reg- 
ulation than enjoy large operations subject to govern- 



256 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

mental control. There are probably only a very few 
concerns in the United States that would fall into this 
category and they should be glad of regulation in order 
to secure freedom from criticism. 

There are three kinds of speculation and profiteering 
in the food trades. The first is of the inherent or specu- 
lative character of foodstuffs due to their seasonal 
nature. The farmer, more by habit than necessity, 
usually markets the bulk of his grain in the fall. By 
necessity he must market his animals at certain seasons, 
for they must be bred at certain seasonable periods, 
they must be fed at certain seasons, and thus come to 
market in waves of production larger than the im- 
mediate demand. In perishables he must market fairly 
promptly, as he cannot himself maintain necessary 
special types of storage. Thus the dealer must spec- 
ulate on carrying the commodities for distribution 
during the period of short production, while the farmer 
markets in time of surplus production. 

While full competitive conditions might reduce the 
charges for this hazard there is a possibility of reducing 
the hazard by better organization and consequently 
the charge for the hazard that is now debited to the 
farmer. It Is worth an exhaustive national investiga- 
tion to determine whether an extension of a system of 
central markets would not afford great help. I do not 
mean the extension of our so-called exchange dealing in 
local produce but the creation of great central exchange 
markets with responsibilities for service to the entire 
people. This help arises in two ways. The first is the 
hourly determination of price at great centers that all 
may know, and thus the farmer protects himself against 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 257 

local variations and manipulation. The second is a 
system of forward contracts through such a market 
between farmer and consumer on standardized com- 
modities. Such contracts in effect remove the necessity 
of a speculative middleman. This system exists in 
grain and cotton and in its processes eliminates a large 
part of the hazard and carries the commodity at the 
lower rate of interest. 

The present trouble with the system of future con- 
tracts is that it lends itself to manipulation, but I be- 
lieve this could be eliminated. 

If we take the case of potatoes, here is an unstand- 
ardized seasonal commodity, with no national market 
and therefore no established daily price as a datum 
point. A grower in Florida, Maine, or Wisconsin, 
through a local agent or through local sale, consigns 
potatoes to Pittsburgh because a larger price is re- 
ported there than in Chicago. The grower can usually 
make no actual sale to an actual retailer or wholesaler 
at destination because the buyer has no assurance of 
quality. Coincident shipment from many points to a 
hopeful market almost daily produces a local glut at 
receiving points somewhere in the country. Often 
enough the shipper gets no return but a bill for freight, 
and the perishables sometimes rot in the yards. 

If potatoes were standardized and sold on contract 
in national market, protected from manipulation, three 
things would result. First, there would be a daily 
national price known to growers. Second, by the sale 
of a contract for delivery the grower would be assured 
of this price. Third, the contract and directions for 
shipment would flow naturally to the distributor where 



258 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the potatoes were needed, and thus the present fearfull>' 
wasteful system would be mitigated. 

Potatoes would be a most difficult case to handle; 
dried beans, peas, even butter, and cheese would be 
easier. I am not advocating widespread dealing in 
futures, but short contracts giving time for delivery 
would probably greatly decrease the margin between 
farmer and local distributor by saving great wastes in 
transport, spoilage, and manipulation. 

The second class of speculation is one largely of the 
war as a period of rising prices growing out of inflation, 
and so forth. It lies in the marking up of goods on the 
shelf to the level of the rising daily market. This mark- 
ing up has been one of the large factors in increasing 
the margin during the war. No better example exists 
than the rise of flour during the 1916-1917 harvest 
year, referred to elsewhere. We shall have a remedy 
for this the moment the tide of inflation turns. The 
farmer and consumer cannot, however, expect that they 
will get even, during such a reverse period, for their 
losses on the rise, because the trades have too great an 
individual power of resistance against selling goods at 
a loss. Anyway, the marking up of goods will cease 
when prices cease to rise — and there is a limit. 

The third class of speculation is wholly vicious. That 
is the purchase of foodstuff's in times of rising economic 
levels, sheerly for the rise in price or the deliberate 
manipulation of markets during normal times. These 
operations are against the common welfare; they can 
find no moral or economic justification. They are not 
to be reached by prosecution ; they must be reached b}' 
prevention. Our great boards of trade in fine patriotic 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 259 

spirit proved their ability during the war to control 
deliberate manipulation of grain and other futures. 
Both of the two latter types of speculation are an im- 
pediment to free markets and they become an unneces- 
sary charge on the margin. 

There can be no question of the improvement in 
position of both farmer and consumer in cases where 
cooperative marketing can be organized. The high 
development of cooperative citrus-fruit marketing has 
resulted in lower average prices to consumer, better 
quality and better return to the grower. Here Is a 
case of scientific distribution lamentably absent in 
many other commodities. There are other specialized 
products to which it could be well extended. To reach 
its best development it should have parallel cooperative 
development among consumers as discussed elsewhere. 

There are man}' ways of assisting the agricultural 
industry not pertinent to this discussion on the cost of 
distribution. They do demand inquiry and public 
illumination ; most of them do not demand legislation so 
much as public education and consideration when leg- 
islating on other subjects. Our agricultural Interests 
also need a foreign policy. For instance, during the 
last month there has been a consolidation of control of 
buying in world markets by the European governments. 
How far It may be extended in its policies Is not clear. 
Nevertheless, a combination of Importers In all Europe 
under government control could make the prices on 
every farm in the United States. 

As the datum point of price determination is the 
wholesaler's market, the accretions of charge for distri- 
bution from that point forward, the economy or ex- 



260 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

travagance in these costs, are of primary interest to 
the consumer. The same phenomena — of marking up 
goods on the shelf, calculating profits not on com- 
modities but on dollars handled, a minor amount of 
vicious speculation, the passing on of excess-profits 
tax — are present in these trades during the past years. 
A much more pertinent phenomenon in unduly increas- 
ing their margins is the increasing demands of the con- 
sumer as to service. Several deliveries daily, purchases 
on credit, the abandonment of the market basket in 
favor of the telephone have man}^ costs. One of them, 
much overlooked, is that customers must alwaj's have 
first quality when they buy blind over the telephone, and 
the seconds and thirds, of equal food value in many 
commodities, go to waste and are added to the price of 
the firsts. That there are some people in the United 
States who want to buy sanely is evidenced by the 400 
per cent, increase in cash-and-carry shops, which do 
business on approximately sixty per cent, of the cost 
of the delivery-and-credit shops. 

There are also many people in the final stages of dis- 
tribution. One city in the United States has one meat 
retailer for everj' 400 inhabitants ; it would be equally 
well served with one dealer to every 1,200. The result 
is high margin to the retailers and no out-of-the-way 
income to any of them. There is no very immediate 
remedy for this. One possibility is an extension of 
cooperative buying by consumers. It has proved a 
great success abroad. It is not socialism, for it arises 
from voluntary action and initiative among the people 
themselves. 

There is now a tendencv to ill balance between the 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 201 

agricultural and general industry. For many years 
we were large exporters of food and importers of 
manufactured goods. We gradually imported mouths, 
manufactured our own goods, and just as rapidly dimin- 
ished our food exports. Up to the point where we con- 
sumed our own food and manufactured our own goods 
it has been a great national development. 

Our annual exports of food decreased during the past 
twenty-five years from some fifteen million tons to 
about six millions just before the European war. In 
the meantime we increased import of such commodities 
as sugar, rice, vegetable oils, until our net exports were 
about five million tons. Of all kinds of food exported 
this probably represents the decreased exports of from 
twenty-five to thirty per cent, of our production down 
to five per cent, of it. 

During the war we gave special stimulus to food pro- 
duction and produced greater economics in consump- 
tion, so that these later years somewhat befog the real 
current, for our agricultural surplus in normal years 
is really very small. During the war and since, we have 
given great stimulus to our manufacturing industries. 
If we shall continue to build up our manufacturing 
industries and our export trade without corresponding 
encouragement to agriculture we shall soon have more 
mouths in our country than we can feed on our own 
produce. We shall, like the European states which 
have devoted themselves to industrial development, 
ultimately become dependent upon overseas food sup- 
plies. If we examine their situation we find the very 
life of their people is thus dependent upon maintaining 
open free access to overseas markets. 



262 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

From this necessity have grown the great naval 
armaments of the world, and the burden they imply on 
all sections of their population. Such nations, of neces- 
sity, have engaged in fierce competition for markets for 
their industrial products. Thus they built up the 
background of world conflicts. The titanic struggles 
that have resulted have endangered the very lives of 
their people by starvation. Their war tactics have, in 
large degree, been directed to strangle food supplies. 
One other result of this development is the terrible 
congestion of populations in manufacturing areas, with 
all the social and human difficulties that this implies. 
There is a jeopardy in industrial over-development 
which has received too little attention because the world 
has experienced it only during the past eighteen months. 
In times of industrial depression or great increase in the 
cost of living, whether brought about by war or by the 
ebb and flow of world prosperity, these populations, 
oppressed with miser}^, turn to political remedies for 
matters that are beyond human control. They natur- 
ally resent the lowering of their standards of living, 
and they inevitably resort to industrial strife, to strikes 
and disorder. Theirs is the breeding ground of radical' 
ism — for all such phenomena belong to the towns and 
not to the country. 

By and large, our industries are now in a high state 
of prosperity. More favorable hours, more favorable 
wages, are to-day offered in industry than in agricul- 
ture. The industries are drawing the workers from our 
farms. If this balance in relative returns is to con- 
tinue we face a gradual decrease in our agricultural 
productivity. If we should develop our industrial side 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 263 

during the next five years as rapidly as we have during 
tlie past five years we shall by that time be faced with 
the necessity to import foodstuffs to supplement our 
own food supplies. 

Some economists will argue, of course, that if wc 
can manufacture goods cheaper than the rest of the 
world and exchange them for foodstuffs abroad we 
should do so. But such arguments again ignore certain 
fundamental social and broad political questions. These 
dangers have become more emphasized by experience of 
the war. From dependence on overseas supplies for 
food we shall, by the very concern that will grow in 
the public mind as to the safety of these supplies, soon 
find ourselves discussing the question of dominating the 
seas. Our international relations will have become 
infinitely more complex and more difficult. Unless the 
League of Nations serves its ideal we shall need to 
burden ourselves with more taxation to maintain great 
naval and military forces. 

But of far more importance than this is that the 
social stability of our country, the development of our 
national life, rests in the spirit of our farms and sur- 
rounds our villages. These are the sources that have 
always supplied our country with its true Americanism, 
its new and fresh minds, its physical and its moral 
strength. Industry's real market is with the farmer 
by the constant increase of his standard of living. We 
want our exports to grow in exchange for commodities 
we need from abroad, but we want them to grow in tune 
with our social and political interests, and to do so they 
must grow in step with our agriculture. 

In conclusion, we are in a period of high inflation and 



264 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

shortage of world production, and consequent abnormal 
prices. The tide is likely to turn almost any time. 
Some of the outrageous margin between the farmer and 
consumer will be lessened by the turn in the tide itself, 
for it will eliminate the marking up of goods and the 
opportunity of vicious speculation. The dangers of the 
turn are twofold. First, that unless we constructively 
remedy the unnecessary margin between the farmer 
and the wholesaler the farmer will receive the brunt of 
the fall long before the supplies he must buy and labor 
he must employ will have fallen into step. It will bring 
to him the greatest suffering in the community. The 
farmer's position can be remedied by better distribution 
of the tax load, by improvement in our transportation 
system, by getting our markets free of impediments to 
free flow of competition, and by constructive Improve- 
ment In our whole distribution system. The consumer 
will get relief from deflation, Improvement In world 
production, and by eliminating the same wastes and 
unnecessary costs In our distribution system. 

The second danger Is that deflation itself will take 
place without constructive consideration. Great wis- 
dom will be required on the part of our Government In 
Its great control of credit that it shall take place 
progressively and with care, in order that there shall 
be no sudden breaks, with their resulting demoraliza- 
tion, unemployment, and misery. 

We require a careful balance of general industry to 
agriculture. We cannot afford to build this nation into 
an Industrial state dependent upon other lands for its 
food supply. We want our industries to grow, but we 
want agriculture to grow in pace with them. Many of 



AGRICULTURAL READJUSTMENT 265 

our farmers made great sacrifices In the war ; they do 
not want to be coddled in peace ; but they must have 
an equality of opportunity with all the other elements 
in the country. 



THE FARMER AS A SCIENTIST 



XX 

TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE * 

George W. Fiske 

Efficiency is everywhere demanded by the spirit of 
our times. We are living in an age that does things. 
Whatever the difficulties, it somehow gets things done. 
It brings to pass even the seemingly impossible. Are 
there mountains in the way? It goes over, under, or 
through. — There are no mountains ! Is there an 
isthmus, preventing the union of great seas and block- 
ing commerce? It erases the isthmus from the world's 
map. — There is no isthmus ! The masterful time-spirit 
has little patience with puttering inefficiency. It 
expects every man to pull his weight, to earn his keep, 
to do his own task, and not to whimper. 

Our cities are hives of efficiency, cruel efficienc}' often. 
With new pace-makers every year, the wheels of indus- 
try speed ever faster, raising the percentage of effec- 
tiveness, per dollar of capital, and per capita employed. 
Hundreds at the wheels, with scant nerves, fail to keep 
the pace; and the race goes by them. But the pace 
keeps up. Other workmen grow more deft and skilful. 
The product is both cheapened and perfected. The 
plant becomes more profitable, under fine executive ef- 
ficiency. The junk-heap grows apace: Out goes every 
obsolete half-success. In comes every new machine 

* From "The Challeng« of the Country," by permission of the publishers, 
the Association Press. 

269 



270 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

which reduces friction, doubles results, halves the cost 
of maintenance, and swells dividends. Surely efficiency 
is the modern shibboleth. 

Here is the new Tungsten electric lamp, which uses 
half the current, at low voltage, but doubles the light ; 
the very dazzling symbol of efficiency. How it anti- 
quates the best Edison lamp of yesterday ! Yet the 
Tungsten becomes old-fashioned in a year. It is too 
fragile land is speedily displaced by the improved 
Mazda. 

But city life has no monopoly on efficiency. In fact 
we do not find in the mills or factories the best illustra- 
tions of modern effectiveness. We have to go back to 
the soil. Agriculture has become the newest of the arts, 
by the grace of modern science. To make two blades 
of grass grow where one grew before is too easy now. 
Multiplying by two is small boys' play. Burbank has 
out-Edisoned Edison ! He and other experimenters in 
the scientific breeding of plants and animals have 
increased the efficiency of every live farmer in the land, 
and have added perhaps a billion dollars a year to the 
nation's wealth. 

They have not yet crossed the bee and the firefly, as 
some one has suggested, to produce an illuminated bee 
that could work at night by his own light. Nor have 
they produced woven-wire fences by crossing the spider 
and the wire-worm ! Not yet ; but they have done 
better. By skillful cross-breeding, they have raised the 
efficiency of the sugar beet from 7 per cent, to 15 per 
cent, sugar. They have produced hardy, seedless 
oranges, plums, apples, and strawberry plants which 
will stand the climate of the frozen North. They have 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 271 

developed fine, long-stapled cotton, high-yielding cereal 
grains, and mammoth carnations and chrysanthemums. 
They have produced the wonderberry, the Wealthy 
Apple, and the Burbank Potato. They have developed 
flax with 25 per cent, more seed. And the "Minnesota 
Number Thirteen Corn," so hardy and sure, has car- 
ried the cornbelt in three great states fully fifty miles 
further to the north, with its magnificent wake of golden 
profits. No wonder America feeds the world. Such is 
our splendid Yankee genius for efficiency. It is the 
master-spirit, the ruling genius of our age; and it 
sliows itself best on our fields and prairies. Other 
nations compete fairly well with our manufactures. 
They outstrip us in commerce. But they are hope- 
lessly behind our American agriculture. The farm prod- 
ucts of this country amounted in the year 1910 to 
almost nine billion dollars. The corn crop alone was 
worth a billion and a half; enough to cancel the entire 
interest-bearing debt of the United States, buy all of 
the gold and silver mined in all the countries of the 
earth in 1909, and still leave the farmers pocket- 
money.* 

In aU fairness it must be said, the modern gospel 
of progressiveness has not been everywhere accepted, 
far from it. Plenty of farmers, doubtless the majority, 
are still following the old traditions. Country folks as 
a rule are conservative. They like the old ways and 
are suspicious of "new-fangled notions." Director 
Bailey of Cornell enjoys telling the comment he over- 
heard one day from a farmer of this sort. It was after 
he had been speaking at a rural life conference, doubt- 

* Report of U. S. Sec. of Agri. for 1910, p. 11. 



272 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

less proposing various plans for better farming, which 
diiFered from the honored superstitions of the neighbor- 
hood. A stolid native was overheard saying to his 
neighbor, "John, let them blow ! They can't hurt me 
none." He prided himself on being immune to all ap- 
peals at such a rural life revival. 

Such a man is very common among the hills, and 
wherever the soil is poor ; but he is beginning to feel 
lonesome in really prosperous rural communities, for 
the new agriculture is fast winning its way. That is, 
the application of science to agriculture has proved its 
efficiency by actual tangible results. A farmer may 
be so superstitious as to begin nothing on a Friday, nor 
butcher during a waning moon for fear his meat will 
shrink, nor use an iron plow for fear it may poison the 
soil ! But when his neighbor by modern methods adds 
50 per cent, to his crop, he knows there must be some- 
thing in it. The new tlieory he ahvays greets with "I 
don't believe it !" 'but the knock-down argument of 
facts compels his reluctant faith. Soon he gives the 
new heresy a trial himself; and success makes him a 
convert to the new gospel. 

An experience like this is a serious thing for a hide- 
bound cbnserA^ative, long wedded to old methods. It 
means that "the former things are passed away and 
behold all things are become new." He loses his super- 
stitions as he discovers the laws of cause and effect. 
He gradually concludes that farming is not a matter 
of luck but largely a matter of science; that it is 
not merely tickling Dame Nature till she grudgingly 
shares her bounties, but that it is a scientific process, 
the laws of which may be discovered. This means 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 273 

mental growth for the farmer, the stimulus of many new 
ideas which bring wider horizons and a larger life; and 
incidentally a heightened respect for his own life-work. 

The old-fashioned farmer, particularly in America 
where methods have been so wasteful because of the 
cheapness of land, has planted and harvested just for 
the season's returns, Avith little regard for the future. 
The modern farmer, self-respecting and far-sighted, 
plans for the future welfare of his farm. He learns 
how to analyze and treat his soil and to conserve its 
fertility, just as he would protect his capital in any 
business investment. Scientific management and farm 
economy are taking the place of mere soil-mining and 
reckless waste. The best farmers plan to leave their 
farms a little more fertile than they found them. Good 
authorities in rural economics assert that if depletion 
of soil fertility were taken into account, the wasteful 
methods of American agriculture in the past, though 
producing apparently large returns, have actually been 
unprofitable. So long as new land could easily be 
obtained from the government for a mere song and a 
few months' patience, the pioneer farmer was utterly 
careless in his treatment of the soil. He moved from 
state to state, skimming the fat of the land but never 
fertilizing, following the frontier line westward and 
leaving half-wasted lands in his trail. 

It was really a blessing to the land when the scarcity 
of free homesteads brought this wasteful process 
towards its end. When new lands became scarce, the 
farms of the Middle West increased in value. For 
twenty years farm values have been rising steadily, with 
two evident results: intensive farming and speculation. 



274 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

The demoralizing effects of the latter are at once ap 
parent. It was a sad day when the prairie farmer 
ceased to think of his farm as a permanent home, but as 
a speculative asset. But it was a good day for the 
business of farming when the farmer discovered the need 
of more careful, intensive cultivation to keep pace with 
rising values. This marks the beginning of scientific 
thoroughness and efficiency in our tilling of the soil. 

Just then something very timely happened. The 
modern period of American agriculture really dates 
from 1887, when Congress, by the Hatch Act, estab- 
lished the first national system of agricultural experi- 
ment stations in the world. Previous to this date there 
had been a few private and state enterprises ; but this 
Act of Congress established at public expense an experi- 
ment station in every state and territory. The vast 
usefulness of this movement in developing a real science 
of agriculture is evident from this paragraph from the 
law: 

Sec. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment 
stations to conduct original researches or verify experiments on 
the physiology of plants and animals; the diseases to which they 
are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical 
composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; 
the comparative advantages of rotative cropping, as pursued under 
the varying series of crops ; the capacity of new plants or trees for 
acclimation; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical com- 
position of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments de- 
signed to test their comparative eflFects on crops of different 
kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants; the 
composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for 
domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions involved 
in the production of butter and cheese, et cetera. 

As a result of this and later laws, over three millions 
of dollars are now spent annually, by the national and 
state governments, to support experiment station work. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 275 

Over a thousand men are employed in the investigations 
and their publications cover practically the whole range 
of the science and art of agriculture. About five hun- 
dred separate bulletins are issued each year, which may 
be obtained free on application. 

This great chain of experiment stations is working 
wonders. In cooperation with the agricultural colleges 
and the U. S. Department of Agriculture, they are rais- 
ing agriculture to scientific levels. They are, by their 
laborator}'^ work, doing the farmer's experimenting for 
him and doing it better and with greater certainty. 
Thus they are eliminating much of the uncertainty and 
"luck" from farming which has been its curse and dis- 
couragement. And thus they are equipping the farmer 
to cope more effectively with the difficulties of nature 
and to put up a more confident fight with stubborn 
climate and fickle weather, because he knows the 
scientific points of the game. 

The opening of rich prairie lands to cxiltivation, with 
the marvels of extensive agriculture, is a wonderful 
story. But intensive farming has its own triumphs, 
though they may be less spectacular. There Is some- 
thing that wins our respect in the careful, thorough 
methods of European agriculture, by which whole 
nations are able to make a living on tiny farms by 
intensive farming. Tilling every little scrap of ground, 
even roadside and dooryard, and guarding the soil fer- 
tility as the precious business capital of the family, it is 
wonderful how few square rods can be made to sustain 
a large family. 

Frugality is not attractive to Americans, especially 
the European type which often means peasant farming. 



276 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

and a low scale of living. We are discovering, however, 
the vast possibilities of farm economy and intensive cul- 
tivation. Professor Carver says: 

Where land is cheap and labor dear, wasteful and extensive 

farming is natural, and it is useless to preach against it 

We always tend to waste that which is cheap and economize that 
which is dear. The condition of this country in all the preceding 
periods dictated the wasteful use of land and the economic use of 
labor, as shown by the unprecedented development of agricultural 
machinery. But as land becomes dearer, relatively to labor, as it 
inevitably will, the tendency will be equally inevitaljle toward more 
intensive agriculture, that is, toward a system which produces 
more per acre. This will follow through the normal working of 
economic laws, as surely as water will flow down hill. 

It is wonderful what can be accomplished by intensive 
cultivation. If the old New England orchards were 
given as thorough care and treatment as the scien- 
tifically tended and doctored apple trees of Oregon, the 
results would surprise the oldest citizen ! Conserving 
moisture and keeping the soil clean from weeds is 
worth all the painstaking care it requires. The renova- 
tion of the soil by regular fertilizing is a lesson the 
wasteful West is slowly learning, coupled with scientific 
schemes of crop rotation to conserve the soil's quality. 
Farmers are astonishingly slow to adopt these methods, 
however, thinking that they know best the needs of their 
own soil. The North Dakota experiment station is 
inducing farmers to adopt tlieir advice as to seed selec- 
tion and crop rotation with the promise to set aside 
five acres for experimentation in accordance with the 
advice given. This is extremely wise policy. Doubt- 
less, if directions are faithfully followed, the contrast 
with the rest of the farm will be highly favorable to 
the five-acre lot and agricultural progress will win out. 

In the earlier pages we have already alluded to this 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 277 

fascinating subject as an illustration of modern ef- 
ficiency in country life. Four years ago Assistant 
Secretary Hays of the Department of Agriculture as- 
serted that scientific breeding of better stock and plant 
life was netting this country a billion dollars a year, 
of the total agricultural production of seven and a 
half billions in 1907.* In 1910 the total reached about 
nine billions and it is probable that scientific agricul- 
ture was the main cause of the great increase rather 
than additional acreage. 

One of the wonders of modern science is this story of 
the development of new plant species and improvement 
in the best of the old, b}' the skillful processes of plant 
breeding. Notable also has been the improvement in 
American horses, cattle, swine, and poultry, developed 
by the same scientific principles. Projected efficiency, 
or breeding power to beget valuable progeny, is the 
central idea. Simple selection is the method. Out of 
a large number of animals the phenomenal individual is 
selected for his notable capacity for reproducing in his 
offspring his own desirable characteristics. Thus the 
best blood is multiplied and the less desirable is dis- 
carded. Sometimes by close inbreeding the eugenic 
process has been hastened. In this way scientific stock 
raisers have been able practically to make to order 
animals with any desired quality. For instance, the 
great demand for bacon in England has been met by a 
masterly bit of agricultural statesmanship, for which 
Mr. John Dryden, chief of the Canadian Agricultural 
Department, is responsible. After careful study and 
experiment, the Yorkshire and Tamworth breeds of 

* "Brains That Make Billions," W. M. Hars, in the Saturday Evening 
Post, Auk. 29, 1908 



278 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

hogs were crossed and a special breed developed 
especially valuable for bacon with exceptionally long 
sides of uniform thickness and with alternating layers 
of fat and lean. Selected bacon made to order ! 

New breeds of sheep have been developed which have 
combined phenomenal wool-producing power with supe- 
rior meat production ; similarly short-horn cattle with 
great milk-giving capacity and beef production; and 
more remarkable still have been the results in horse 
breeding. In spite of all the motor-cycles and auto- 
mobiles, the horse is becoming more and more useful, 
because more highly civilized and specialized. The 
breeders know how to build up horse-flesh to suit your 
special needs for draft horse, family horse, trotter, or 
pacer, with any desired form, proportions, or talent, 
almost as accurately as a druggist compounds prescrip- 
tions! The wonderful possibilities involved challenge 
our iiriilgmation. Among the results of this stock- 
raising strategy we ought to expect not only happier 
and richer farmers, but better and cheaper food and 
clothing for all classes of people. The very fact that 
the business is now on a scientific basis has appealed to 
students and is attracting men of large abilities who 
see the opportunity to better rapidly, year by year, 
the livestock quality of the whole country. 

In the field of plant breeding these marvelous results 
are more rapid and startling because of the wider range 
of selection. Hybridization, the crossing of different 
species, has accomplished much more than simple selec- 
tion. Dr. William Saunders of Canada succeeded in 
crossing the Ladoga and Fife varieties of wheat and 
secured a wheat which was earlier than Fife and yielded 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 279 

better than Ladoga. Likewise, Luther Burbank was 
able to produce a hybrid walnut by crossing the English 
and black walnuts ; and Webber and Swingle developed 
the new fruits called tangerines and citranges by cross- 
ing sweet oranges with carefully selected specimens 
of the wild fruit. Experiments last year in blueberry 
culture developed luscious berries a half inch in 
diameter. Possibilities in berry development are almost 
unlimited, especially by crossing with hardy wild 
varieties. 

Peach raisers have two great obstacles to sure suc- 
cess: drought in the Southwest and frost toward the 
North. Science is helping them to compete successfully 
with the severities of Nature. A hardy wild peach has 
been found in Northern China and grafting on this stock 
has produced the hardiest peach in Iowa ; while another 
strain bids fair to meet the drought-resisting needs of 
the Southwest fruit grower. 

Our agricultural explorers are searching the world 
for new varieties which can be used in hybridizing to 
perfect the American species. For instance, a wild 
wheat has been found in Palestine which requires very 
little water. So a specialist in acclimatization was 
sent directly to the slopes of Mount Hermon to dis- 
cover its possibilities for American dry farming. If the 
plant doctors succeed in developing wheat which can be 
raised in our arid wilderness, it would repay a thousand- 
fold the expense of a round-the-world trip. The possible 
profits in skillful plant breeding are almost unlimited. 
Burbank is quoted as asserting: "The right man 
under favorable conditions can make one dollar yield a 
million dollars in plant breeding." In 1908 the Min- 



280 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

nesota Experiment Station had spent $40,000 in breed- 
ing the cereal grains. The agricultural department is 
authority for the opinion that "the increased produc- 
tion is estimated at a thousand-fold, or $40,000,000." 
The justly famous navel oranges of California can all 
be traced to two scions sent from the U. S, Department 
of Agriculture some years ago. The Wealthy apple, 
which thrives in the cold North better than any other 
good variety, goes back to the early struggles of Peter 
Gideon at Lake Minnetonka, who faced the Minnesota 
winter almost penniless, coatless, and with a family de- 
pendent upon him ; but had faith enough to invest his 
hard-earned dollars in selected apple-seed from his far 
off home in Maine. The largest single contributor to 
the wealth produced by scientific breeding is said to be 
the Rurbank potato. The vanguard of American ex- 
perimenters are ranging the world and bring home 
large-fruitcd jujubes (as good as dates) from the dry 
fields of central Asia ; seedless Chinese persimmons 
which have just been successfully fruited in North 
Carolina ; a Japanese salad plant and a vegetable 
called udo which Is similar to asparagus ; edible roots 
called aroids which thrive in swampy land where the 
potato rots ; hardy alfalfa from central Asia success- 
fully crossed with our own varieties for our cold 
Northwest ; drought-resisting cherries, apricots with 
sweet kernels, Caucasian peaches, olives hardy in zero 
temperatures, mangoes from Porto Rico, the Paradise 
apple which grows wild in the Caucasus, the Slew Abri- 
kose, an apricot as smooth as the nectarine, and wild 
strawberries fruiting in February on the dry cliffs of 
western Asia which, through cross-breeding, may help 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 281 

to carry our native strawberry many miles still farther 
to the north. 

Th , story is endless ; but these items suggest to us 
the thoroughly statesmanlike way in which our agricul- 
tural leaders are increasing year by year the possibil- 
ities of our soil in spite of all drawbacks of conditions 
and climate. No wonder they are already prophesying 
that our annual agricultural production will before long 
reach twenty billions. When it comes, a large part of 
the credit must be given to the skillful agricultural 
scientists who are furnishing all progressive farmers 
these newer species of plants and animals which are 
superseding the inferior varieties. 

When it is the problem of sterility, it is hopeless. 
But usually it is merely the problem of aridity ; which 
is only a challenge to enterprise. Much of our "Great 
American Desert," as the old geography used to de- 
scribe it, is in reality the most fertile of all soils ; no 
wonder it can easily be made to "blossom as the rose." 

Dr. W. E. Smythe in his fascinating book, "The 
Conquest of Arid America," calls attention to the fact 
that the real dividing line between the East and the West 
is the ninety-seventh meridian which divides in twain 
the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. 
East of this line is the region of fairly assured rainfall. 
To the westward stretches the vast area of arid land 
with a rainfall insufficient to sustain agriculture, and 
with only three or four people to the square mile, 
though with resources enough to support a hundred mil- 
lion people. With a climate matchless for health and a 
varied and beautiful scenery, coupled with untold min- 
eral deposits and a soil fertility that is remarkable, this 



282 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

great section is slowly coming to its own, through the 
method of irrigation, from the mountains and the 
streams. 

With characteristic Western spirit the same author 
remarks, "Even in humid regions nothing is so uncer- 
tain as the time and amount of the rainfall. In the 
whole range of modern industry nothing is so crude, 
uncalculating, and unscientific as the childlike de- 
pendence on the mood of the clouds for the moisture 
essential to the production of the staple necessities of 
life." The superiority of irrigation as a certain means 
of water supply which can be regulated at will is a 
thesis easy to maintain. The results make a marvelous 
story. "The canal is an insurance policy against loss 
of crops by drought, while aridity is a substantial 
guarantee against injury by flood. The rich soils of 
the arid region produce from four to ten times as 
largely with irrigation, as the soil of the humid region 
without it. Twenty acres in the irrigated West should 
equal 100 acres elsewhere. Certainty, abundance, 
variety — all this upon an area so small as to be within 
the control of a single family through its own area, are 
the elements which compose industrial independence 
under irrigation." 

The small farm unit, usually from five to twenty-five 
acres, brings neighbors close together, abolishing 
loneliness and most of the social ills of farm life in the 
East. Beautiful irrigated villages are springing up 
which rival in comfort and privilege most places on 
earth, and combine both city and country privileges, 
where rural and urban meet. The spirit of cooperation 
is strong in irrigated communities, enforced by the 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 283 

common dependence upon the common enterprise and 
watei supply. This is well illustrated by the Mormon 
commonwealth, the pioneer irrigators of the West. 

The enthusiastic irrigating farmer asserts that irri- 
gation is "the foundation of truly scientific agricul- 
ture." "The Western farmer who has learned to irri- 
gate thinks it would be quite as illogical for him to leave 
the watering of his potato patch to the caprice of the 
clouds as for the housewife to defer her washday until 
she could catch rainwater in her tubs." Irrigation 
certainly furnishes the ideal method of raising a varied 
crop, giving each crop individual treatment, serving 
each of thirty varieties of plants and trees with just 
the amount of daily moisture they individually need, so 
as to produce maximum products. No wonder three 
crops in a 3'^ear sometimes result, and sometimes five 
crops of alfalfa in the Southwest. Here we come to th.> 
highest development of intensive farming where the 
utmost value of agricultural science has free play and 
rivals the results of research and skill in any other line 
of human effort. 

Wonderful as these irrigation projects are, we must 
not fail to notice that this method of reclaiming arid 
lands can only be used where there are mountains, 
rivers, or water courses which can be tapped. Ulti- 
mately an area as large as New England and New York 
State will probably be blessed by irrigation. But this 
is only a small fraction of the arid West. How shall the 
rest be reclaimed from the desert? Obviously by some 
method of dry farming, depending on and conserving 
the meager rain-fall. 

A few simple principles have been discovered, and 



284 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

some specialized machinery developed, by which suc- 
cessful dry farming is now conducted on an extensive 
scale along the arid plains between the Missouri River 
basin and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In brief, 
these principles are : deep plowing, sub-soil packing, 
intensive cultivation, maintaining a fine dust mulch on 
the surface, the use of drought-resisting grains, espe- 
cially certain varieties of wheat, allowing the land to 
lie fallow every other year to store moisture, and keep- 
ing a good per cent, of humus (vegetable matter) in the 
soil to resist evaporation. In every possible way the 
dry farmer conserves moisture. The dry mulch is par- 
ticularly effective. Only a few years ago it was dis- 
covered that by capillary attraction much of the water 
absorbed by the spongy soil during a rain is lost by 
rapid evaporation, coming to the surface, just as oil 
runs up a wick. But by stirring the surface the 
"capillary ducts" are broken up and the moisture tends 
to stay down in the sub-soil ; for the two inches of dust 
mulch on the surface acts like a blanket, protecting the 
precious moisture from the dry winds. 

In such brief treatment it is not to be expected that 
the writer could do justice to the subject of modern 
agriculture. In fact, there has been little reference to 
the topic of general farming. In its main outline it is 
a familiar topic and requires little attention here. The 
descriptions of certain varieties of specialized agricul- 
ture have been given as illustrations of the more re- 
markable phases of the application of scientific methods 
to country life. We hope two results have thus been 
attained, that the dignity and efficiency and scientific 
possibilities of modern agriculture as a profession have 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 285 

been brought to the attention both of our readers in 
the city and of the discontented farm boys in the 
country. Both need a higher appreciation of country 
life. 

It should be evident to all that agriculture to-day is 
thoroughly scientific when rightly practised, wjiich is 
simply saying that the practice of the new agriculture 
is a profession. It is among the most difficult and 
highly technical of all professions. No profession, with 
the possible exception of medicine, has a broader scien- 
tific basis or is at present deriving a greater benefit 
from vast inductive work in world-wide experimentation 
at both public and private expense. This profession 
has made wonderful gains in recent years in both ex- 
tensive and intensive efficienc}^ and has written among 
its triumphs many of the most romantic stories of mod- 
ern mechanical skill, inventive genius, economic profit, 
and scientific achievement. 

This honorable profession is not only worthy of the 
finest and ablest of our American young manhood, but 
its opportunity and present need is a distinct challenge 
to their attention. Mr. James J. Hill recently stated 
as his opinion that not more than one per cent, of 
American farmers in the jMiddlc West were keeping in 
touch with the agricultural institutions ; which is the 
same as sa3'ing they are not keeping up to date. This 
suggests the need of more intelligent modern farmers 
tilling the soil as a profession and thus pointing the 
way to progress for all their neighbors. 

This word conservation has but recently won its 
place of honor in our popular speech; but it is a word 
of mighty import. The battle for conservation of our 



286 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

national resources is on, and it challenges the attention 
of our young collegians. 

It is encouraging to see results already. By a happy 
combination of progressiveness with true conservatism, 
we are conserving our national assets from Niagara to 
the mighty forests of Washington and California and 
from the arid lands of the mighty empire of Montana 
to the swamps of Florida. The nation is repenting of 
its prodigal wastefulness and is now guarding jealously 
its forest reserves, its vast water-power privileges, its 
coal and mineral deposits, and its soil fertility, for 
upon these stores of fundamental wealth depends the 
prosperity of endless generations. Many alluring 
chances will come to men now in college to share in this 
great task of the nation, this fascinating enterprise of 
conservation. 

Any reader must be quite lacking in vision who has 
been able to read the remarkable progress of modern 
agricultural science without discerning the deep re- 
ligious significance of it all. Civilization unquestion- 
ably is based on economics. Rural prosperity is a 
primary condition of rural permanence. Farming must 
be profitable enough to maintain a self-respecting rural 
folk ; or the open country would be speedily abandoned 
to a race of peasants and rural heathenism would be 
imminent. 

Progress in agriculture, developing rural prosperity, 
means the survival of the best rural homes and the 
finest rural ideals, — otherwise these would go to the 
city. Retaining in the country a genuine Christian con- 
stituency and rural leadership means the survival of the 
country church. The Christian forces in the country 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 287 

have a vast stake in rural prosperity. You cannot hope 
to build a prosperous country church on poor soil or 
maintain it on bad farming. This is not a mere matter 
of scarcity of contributions. It is a result of the pov- 
erty of personality among people who are poor Chris- 
tians because they are poor farmers. 

Christian leaders should therefore rejoice in the 
advance of modern agriculture not only because it all 
signifies a richer and broader rural prosperity, but also 
because it makes possible the permanence of rural 
Christendom and the survival of successful country 
churches. The more profitable modern farming is made, 
the richer becomes the opportunity of country life, the 
larger proportion of the brightest sons and daughters 
of the farm will resist the lure of the city. Nothing is 
so vital to the country church, humanly speaking, as to 
keep in the country parishes a fair share of the country 
boys and girls of the finest type. With them it lives and 
serves its community. Without them it will die and its 
community will become decadent. 

It is no selfish Christian spirit that rejoices in the 
broadening opportunities of country life. The church 
is but a means to an end. The great objective is the 
coming of the Kingdom of God for which Jesus prayed. 
As fast as the very soil of a country is recognized as 
"holy land," and preserving its fertility is felt to be a 
patriotic duty ; as fast as better live stock, better plant 
species, and a better breed of men are sought as a 
working ideal ; as fast as the conservation of all natural 
resources becomes a national life purpose; so rapidly 
and inevitably the Kingdom of Heaven will come. The 
Country Life Movement is fundamentally religious. 



XXI 

ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 

Thomas Henry Huxley 

In order to make the title of this discourse generally 
intelligible, I have translated the term "Protoplasm," 
which is the scientific name of the substance of which I 
am about to speak, by the words "the physical basis of 
life." I suppose that, to many, the idea that there is 
such a thing as a physical basis, or matter, of life may 
be novel — so widely spread is the conception of life as a 
something which works through matter, but is inde- 
pendent of it ; and even those who are aware that matter 
and life are inseparably connected, may not be pre- 
pared for the conclusion plainly suggested by the 
phrase, "the physical basis or matter of life," that there 
is some one kind of matter which is common to all living 
beings, and that their endless diversities are bound to- 
gether by a physical, as well as an ideal, unity. In 
fact, when first apprehended, such a doctrine as this 
appears almost shocking to common sense. 

What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different 
from one another, in faculty, in form, and in substance, 
than the various kinds of living beings? What com- 
munity of faculty can there be between the brightly 
colored lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere min- 

288 



ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 289 

eral incrustation of the bare rock on which it grows, 
and the painter to whom it is instinct with beauty, or 
the botanist, whom it feeds with knowledge? 

Again, think of the microscopic fungus — a mere 
infinitesimal ovoid particle, which finds space and 
duration enough to multiply into countless millions in 
the body of a living fly ; and then of the wealth of 
foliage, the luxuriance of flower and fruit, which lies 
between this bald sketch of a plant and the giant pine 
of California, towering to the dimensions of a cathedral 
spire, or the Indian fig. which covers acres with its pro- 
found shadow, and endures while nations and empires 
come and go around its vast circumference. Or, turn- 
ing to the other half of the world of life, picture to 
yourself the great Finner whale, hugcst of beasts that 
live, or have lived, disporting his eighty or ninety feet 
of bone, muscle, and blubber, with easy roll, among 
waves in which the stoutest ship that ever left dockyard 
would flounder hopelessly ; and contrast him with the 
invisible animalcules — mere gelatinous specks, multi- 
tudes of which could, in fact, dance upon the point of a 
needle with the same ease as the angles of the schoolmen 
could, in imagination. With these images before your 
minds, you may well ask, what community of forms, or 
structure, is there between the animalcule and the 
whale; or between the fungus and the fig-tree? And, 
a fortiori, between all four? 

Finally, if we regard substance, or material com- 
position, what hidden bond can connect the flower which 
a girl wears in her hair and the blood which courses 
through her youthful veins ; or, what is there in common 
between the dense and resisting mass of the oak, or the 



290 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

strong fabric of the tortoise, and those broad disks of 
glassy jelly which may be seen pulsating through the 
waters of a calm sea, but which drain away to mere 
films in the hand which raises them out of their 
element? 

'Such objections as these must, I think, arise in the 
mind of every one who ponders, for the first time, upon 
the conception of a single physical basis of life under- 
lying all the diversities of vital existence ; but I propose 
to demonstrate to you that, notwithstanding these ap- 
parent difficulties, a threefold unity — namely, a unity 
of power or faculty, a unity of form, and a unity of 
substantial composition — does provide the whole living 
world. 

No very abstruse argumentation is needed, in the 
first place, to prove that the powers, or faculties, of all 
kinds of living matter, diverse as they may be in degree, 
are substantially similar in kind. 

Goethe has condensed a survey of all powers of man- 
kind into the well-known epigram : 

Warum treibt sich das Volk so und schreit? Es will sicli 
ernahren. Kinder zeugen und die nahren, so gut es vermag. 

• ♦ « ♦ 

"Weiter bringt es kein Mensch, stell' er sich, wie er auch will.* 
In physiological language this means, that all the 
multifarious and complicated activities of man are 
comprehensible under three categories. Either they are 
immediately directed toward the maintenance and de- 
velopment of the body, or they effect transitory changes 
in the relative positions of parts of the body, or they 
tend toward the continuance of the species. Even those 

* Why do people struggle so and clamor ? They wish to maintain them- 
nelves, to bring forth children, and nourish them as well as they can. . . . 
Further than this no man attains, strive how he may. 



ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 291 

manifestations of intellect, of feeling, and of will, 
which we rightly name the higher faculties, are not ex- 
cluded from this classification, inasmuch as to every one 
but the subject of them, they are known only as transi- 
tory changes in the relative positions of parts of the 
body. Speech, gesture, and every other form of human 
action are, in the long run, resolvable into muscular 
contraction, and muscular contraction is but a transi- 
tory change in the relative positions of the parts of a 
muscle. But the scheme which is large enough to em- 
brace the activities of the highest form of life, covers all 
those of the lower creatures. The lowest plant, or 
animalcule, feeds, grows, and reproduces its kind. In 
addition, all animals manifest those transitory changes 
of form which we class under irritability and contrac- 
tility ; and, it is more than probable, that when the 
vegetable world is thoroughly explored, we shall find 
all plants in possession of the same powers, at one time 
or other of their existence. 

I am not now alluding to such phenomena, at once 
rare and conspicuous, as those exhibited by the leaflets 
of the sensitive plants, or the stamens of the barberry, 
but to much more widely spread, and, at the same time, 
more subtle and hidden, manifestations of vegetable 
contractility. You are doubtless aware that the com- 
mon nettle owes its stinging property to the innumer- 
able stiff and needlelike, though exquisitely delicate, 
hairs which cover its surface. Each stinging-needle 
tapers from a broad base to a slender summit, which, 
though rounded at the end, is of such microscopic fine- 
ness that it readily penetrates, and breaks off in the 
skin. The whole hair consists of a very delicate outer 



292 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

case of wood, closely applied to the inner surface of 
which is a la3^er of semi-fluid matter, full of innumerable 
granules of extreme minuteness. This semi-fluid lining 
is protoplasm, which thus constitutes a kind of bag, 
full of limpid liquid, and roughly corresponding in form 
with the interior of the hair which it fills. When viewed 
with a sufficiently high magnifying power, the proto- 
plasmic layer of the nettle hair is seen to be in a con- 
dition of unceasing activity. Local contractions of the 
whole thickness of its substance pass slowly and 
gradually from point to point, and give rise to the 
appearance of progressive waves, just as the bending of 
successive stalks of corn by a breeze produces the ap- 
parent billows of a cornfield. 

But in addition to these movements, and indepen- 
dently of them, the gi'anules are driven, in relatively 
rapid streams, through channels in the protoplasm 
which seems to have a considerable amount of persis- 
tence. Most commonly, the currents in adjacent parts 
of the protoplasm take similar directions ; and, thus, 
there is a general stream up one side of the hair and 
down the other. But this does not prevent the existence 
of partial currents which take different routes ; and 
sometimes trains of granules may be seen coursing 
Swiftly in opposite directions within a twenty-thou- 
sandth of an inch of one another; while, occasionally, 
opposite streams come into direct collision, and after a 
longer or shorter struggle, one predominates. The 
cause of these currents seems to He in contractions of 
the protoplasm which bounds the channels in which they 
flow, but which are so minute that the best microscopes 
show only their efi^ect, and not themselves. 



ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 29;{ 

The spectacle afforded by the wonderful energies 
prisoned within the compass of the microscopic hair of 
a plant, which we commonly regard as a merely passive 
organism, is not easily forgotten hy one who has 
watched its display, continued hour after hour, without 
pause or sign of weakening. The possible complexity 
of many other organic forms, seemingly as simple as 
the protoplasm of the nettle, dawns upon one ; and the 
comparison of such a protoplasm to a body with an 
internal circulation, which has been put forward by an 
eminent physiologist, loses much of its startling charac- 
ter. Currents similar to those of the hairs of the nettle 
have been observed in a great multitude of very dif- 
ferent plants, and weighty authorities have suggested 
that they probably occur, in more or less perfection, in 
all young vegetable cells. If such be the case, the 
wonderful noon-day silence of a tropical forest is, after 
all, due only to the dulness of our hearing; and could 
our ears catch the murmurs of these tiny Maelstroms, 
as they whirl in the innumerable myriads of living cells 
which constitute each tree, we should be stunned, as with 
the roar of a great city. 

Among the lower plants, it is the rule rather than the 
exception, that contractility should be still more openly 
manifested at some periods of their existence. The 
protoplasm of Algce and Fungi becomes, under many 
circumstances, partially, or completely, freed from its 
woody case, and exhibits movements of its whole mass, 
or is propelled by the contractility of one, or more, 
hair-like prolongations of its body, which are called 
vibratile cilia. And, so far as the conditions of the 
manifestations of the phenomena of contractility have 



294 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

yet been studied, they are the same for the plant as for 
the animal. Heat and electric shocks influence both, 
and in the same way, though it may be in diflferent de- 
grees. It is by no means my intention to suggest that 
there is no difference in faculty between the lowest 
plant and the highest, or between plants and animals. 
But the difference between the powers of the lowest 
plant, or animal, and those of the highest, is one of 
degree, not of kind, and depends, as Milne-Edwards 
long ago so well pointed out, upon the extent to which 
the principles of the division of labor is carried out in 
the living economy. In the lowest organism all parts 
are competent to perform all functions, and one and 
the same portion of protoplasm may successfully take 
on the function of feeding, moving, or reproducing ap- 
paratus. In the highest, on the contrary, a great 
number of parts combine to perform each function, each 
part doing its allotted share of the work with greater 
accuracy and efficiency, but being useless for any other 
purpose. 

On the other hand, notwithstanding all the funda- 
mental resemblances which exist between the powers of 
the protoplasm in plants and in animals, they present a 
striking difference (to which I shall advert more at 
length presently), in the fact that plants can manu- 
facture fresh protoplasm out of mineral compounds, 
whereas animals are obliged to procure it ready-made, 
and hence, in the long run, depend upon plants. Upon 
what condition this difference in the powers of the two 
great divisions of the world of life depends, nothing is 
at present known. 

With such qualifications as arise out of the last- 



ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 295 

mentioned fact, it may be truly said that the acts of all 
living things are fundamentally one. Is any such unity 
predicablc of their forms? Let us seek in easily verified 
facts for a reply to this question. If a drop of blood 
be drawn by pricking one's finger, and viewed with 
proper precautions, and under a sufficiently high micro- 
scopic power, there will be seen, among the innumerable 
multitude of little, circular, discoidal bodies, or corpus- 
cles, which float in it and give it color, a comparatively 
small number of colorless corpuscles, of somewhat 
larger size and very irregular shape. If the drop of 
blood be kept at the temperature of the body these 
colorless corpuscles will be seen to exhibit a marvelous 
activity, changing their forms with great rapidity, 
drawing in and thrusting cut prolongations of their 
substance, and creeping about as if they were inde- 
pendent organisms. 

The substance which is thus active is a mass of proto- 
plasm, and its activity differs in detail, rather than in 
principle, from that of the protoplasm of the nettle. 
Under sundry circumstances the corpuscle dies and be- 
comes distended into a round mass, in the midst of which 
is seen a smaller spherical body, which existed, but was 
more or less hidden, in the living corpuscle, and is called 
its nucleus. Corpuscles of essentially similar structure 
are to be found in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, 
and scattered through the whole framework of the 
body. 

Nay, more; in the earliest condition of the human 
organism, in that state in which it has but just become 
distinguishable from the egg in which it arises, it is 
nothing but an aggregation of such corpuscles, and 



296 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

every organ of the body was, once, no more than such 
an aggregation. 

Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to 
be what may be termed the structural unit of the human 
body. As a matter of fact, the body, in its earliest 
state, is a mere multiple of such units ; and in its per- 
fect condition, it is a multiple of such units variously 
modified. 

But does the formula which expresses the essential 
structural character of the highest animal cover all the 
rest, as the statement of its powers and faculties cov- 
ered all the others? Very nearly. Beast and fowl, 
reptile and fish, mollusk, worm, and polype, are all com- 
posed of structural units of the same character, namely, 
masses of protoplasm with a nucleus. There are sundry 
very low animals, each of which, structurally, is a mere 
colorless blood-corpuscle, leading an independent life. 
But, at the very bottom of the animal scale, even this 
simplicity becomes simplified, and all the phenomena 
of life are manifested by a particle of protoplasm with- 
out a nucleus. Nor are such organisms insignificant 
by reason of their want of complexity. It is a fair 
question whether the protoplasm of those simplest 
forms of life, which people an immense extent of the 
bottom of the sea, would not outweigh that of all the 
higher living beings, which inhabit the land put to- 
gether. And in ancient times, no less than at the pres- 
ent day, such living beings as these have been the great- 
est of rock builders. 

What has been said of the animal world is no less 
true of plants. Embedded in the protoplasm at the 
broad, or attached, end of the nettle hair, there lies a 



ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 297 

spheroidal nucleus. Careful examination further proves 
that the whole substance of the nettle is made up of a 
repetition of such masses of nucleated protoplasm, each 
contained in a wooden case, which is modified in form, 
sometimes into a woody fibre, sometimes into a duct or 
spiral vessel, sometimes into a pollen grain, or an ovule. 
Traced back to its earliest state, the nettle arises as the 
man does, in a particle of nucleated protoplasm. And 
in the lowest plants, as in the lowest animals, a single 
mass of such protoplasm may constitute the whole 
plant, or the protoplasm may exist without a nucleus. 

Under these circumstances it may well be asked, how 
is one mass of non-nucleated protoplasm to be dis- 
tinguished from another? Why call one "plant" and 
the other "animal"? 

The only reply is that, so far as form is concerned, 
plants and animals are not separable, and that, in many 
cases, it is a mere matter of convention whether we call 
a given organism an animal or a plant. There is a 
living body called ^thalium septicum, which appears 
upon decaying vegetable substances, and in one of its 
forms is common upon the surfaces of tan-pits. In this 
condition it is, to all intents and purposes, a fungus, 
and formerly was always regarded as such ; but the 
remarkable investigations of De Bary have shown that, 
in another condition, the /Ethalium is an actively loco- 
motive creature, and takes in solid matters, upon which 
apparently, it feeds, thus exhibiting the most charac- 
teristic feature of animality. Is this a plant ; or is it 
an animal? Is it both ; or is it neither? Some decide in 
favor of the last supposition, and establish an inter- 
mediate kingdom, a sort of biological No Man's Land 



298 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

for all these questionable forms. But, as it is ad- 
mittedly impossible to draw any distinct boundary line 
between this no man's land and the vegetable world on 
the one hand, or the animal, on the other, it appears to 
me that this proceeding merely doubles the difficulty 
which, before, was single. 

Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis 
of all life. It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it 
and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by 
artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick 
or sun-dried clod. 

Thus it becomes clear that all living powers are 
cognate, and that all living forms are fundamentally of 
one character. The researches of the chemist have re- 
vealed a no less striking uniformity of material com- 
position in living matter. 

In perfect strictness, it is true that chemical investi- 
gation can tell us little or nothing, directly, of the com- 
position of living matter, inasmuch as such matter must 
needs die in the act of analysis, — and upon this very 
obvious ground, objections, which I confess seem to me 
to be somewhat frivolous, have been raised to the draw- 
ing of any conclusions whatever respecting the com- 
position of actually living matter, from that of the 
dead matter of life, which alone is accessible to us. But 
objectors of this class do not seem to reflect that it is 
also, in strictness, true that we know nothing about the 
composition of any body whatever, as it is. The state- 
ment that a crystal of calc-spar consists of carbonate 
of lime is quite true, if we only mean that, by appropri- 
ate processes, it may be resolved into carbonic acid and 
quicklime. If you pass the same carbonic acid over the 



ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 299 

very quicklime thus obtained, you will obtain carbonate 
of lime again ; but it will not be calc-spar, nor anything 
like it. Can it, therefore, be said that chemical analysis 
teaches nothing about the chemical composition of calc- 
spar? Such a statement would be absurd; but it is 
hardly more so than the talk one occasionally hears 
about the uselessness of applying the results of chemical 
analysis to the living bodies which have yielded them. 

One fact, at any rate, is out of reach of such refine- 
ments, and this is, that all the forms of protoplasm 
which have yet been examined contain the four elements, 
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in very com- 
plex union, and that they behave similarly toward sev- 
eral reagents. To this complex combination, the nature 
of which has never been determined with exactness, the 
name of protein has been applied. And if we use this 
term with such caution as may properly arise out of 
our comparative ignorance of the things for which it 
stands, it may be truly said that all protoplasm is pro- 
teinaceous, or, as the white, or albumen, of an egg is 
one of the commonest examples of a nearly pure pro- 
tein matter, we may say that all living matter is more 
or less albuminoid. 

Perhaps it would not yet be safe to say that all forms 
of protoplasm are aflfected by the direct action of elec- 
tric shocks ; and yet the number of cases in which the 
contraction of protoplasm is shown to be affected bj 
this agency increases every day. 

Nor can it be affirmed with perfect confidence that all 
forms of protoplasm are liable to undergo that peculiar 
coagulation at a temperature of 49°-50'' centigrade, 
which has been called "heat-stiffening," though Kiihne's 



300 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

beautiful researches have proved this occurrence to 
take place in so many and such diverse living beings, 
that it is hardly rash to expect that the law holds good 
for all. 

Enough has perhaps been said to prove the existence 
of a general uniformity in the character of the proto- 
plasm, or physical basis of life, in whatever group of 
living beings it may be studied. But it will be under- 
stood that this general uniformity by no means excludes 
any amount of special modifications of the fundamental 
substance. The mineral, carbonate of lime, assumes an 
immense diversity of characters, though no one doubts 
that, under all the Protean changes, it is one and the 
same thing. 



XXII 

NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS * 

David Fairchild 

To readers of the National Geographic Magazine 
who have wandered with men of many tastes all over the 
world, the thought must often have come, "Of what use 
are all the strange plants which make up the landscapes 
of the pictures?" The globe, with its kaleidoscopic 
panorama of people, animals, and plants, has been 
whirled before you, as it were, and you have in your 
minds the picture of a ball circling through space, 
covered with a film of plants, animals, and men in con- 
stant change. So varied is this film of plants that there 
are probably half a million distinct, specific forms in 
it, and yet man uses only a few hundred for his own 
purposes. 

To change, in a measure, the distribution of the 
really useful plants of the world is what the office of 
Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture is trying to do. The motive under- 
lying this work might be called the ambition to make 
the world more habitable. If one is inclined to be pessi- 
mistic with regard to the food supply of the world, he 
has only to talk to an}'^ one of the enthusiasts of the 
Department of Agriculture to get a picture of the 
widening vista of agricultural possibilities which would 

* From the National Geographic Magazine. Copyright, 1911. By per- 
mission, of the author and the publishers. 

30] 



302 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

make him realize that the food problems of the race are 
not hung in the balance of our Great Plains area, and 
that the food-producing power of the world is still prac- 
tically unknown, because we have just begun to study, in 
a modern way, the relative performance of different 
plants. 

We may not always grow the plants we do now. 
Some of them are expensive food producers, some pro- 
duce foods that are difficult to digest, and same we may 
leave behind as we learn to like others better. 

What to grow was not so serious a question to the 
early Phoenician peasant, who knew perhaps a dozen 
crops, as it is becoming to the American agriculturist, 
who can pick from the crops of all the world the one 
best suited to his land and climate. Changes come so 
rapidly nowadays that if a man to-day talks of "pears" 
he may mean what are ordinarily thought of as pears, 
or he may refer to alligator pears, which he is growing 
in Florida, or prickly pears which he is cultivating in 
Texas. Both the alligator pear and the prickly pear 
have come in as crops to be reckoned with within the 
past fifteen years, and already the stockraisers of the 
South are wondering if they should plan spiny or spine- 
less forms of the prickly pear cactus, and the fruit- 
growers of Florida are inquiring as to which of the 
several varieties of alligator pear tree is going to be 
the most productive and profitable. 

To help find the plant which will produce the best 
results of any that can be grown, on every acre of land 
in the United States, is, in general, the broad policy of 
the office of Seed and Plant Introduction of the Bureau 
of Plant Industry. 



NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 303 

Although begun in a systematic way and as a distinct 
activity of the Department in 1897, it has barely 
touched the fringe of its possibilities. The 31,000 dif- 
ferent plant immigrants which have come in, and have 
either died or are now growing somewhere in this coun- 
try, represent a small beginning only, and have merely 
helped to show the greatness of the possibilities which 
progress in agricultural research is creating. 

"You will soon have all the crops in," is the remark 
of those who have given the matter little thought. Our 
own lives change with every moment of time, and so do 
the lives of plants. The strains of potato which our 
grandfathers grew are, with few exceptions, different 
from the strains in vogue to-day ; and, fitting their lives 
into the various conditions of soil and climate, the orig- 
inal wild South American species of potato, Solanum 
tuberosum,, assumes in the hands of men a thousand 
different forms. 

In whatever parts of the world new forms may spring 
into existence it matters not ; our potato-growers 
should be able to try every sport of importance and 
every wild, hardy species, whether it comes from the 
manse of a Scottish parson, is discovered as a wild 
species along the Paraguay River by an American rail- 
way bridge-builder, is found among the mountains of 
Columbia by a Jesuit priest, is gathered by a forest 
ranger in the dry regions of an Indian reservation in 
New Mexico, or is secured by a trained collector from 
the Chiloe Islands off the coast of Chile. It makes little 
difference ; they must all come in as plant immigrants to 
show what they can do in the gardens of American ex- 
perts. There is always the chance that they may be 



304 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

thrown out as unprofitable ; but, if they have desirable 
characters, they can be blended with others, or ex- 
ploited with others, if they are superior for any of the 
potato regions of this country. 

It may be new to many that every day plant immi- 
grants from different parts of the world arrive in 
Washington, and every da}^ through the mails, hun- 
dreds of these disinfected arrivals go out to find a new 
home in some part of the country. 

It is a difficult matter to give an adequate impres- 
sion of the magnitude and importance to the country of 
this stream of new plant immigrants which for fourteen 
years has been pouring into the country, and has been 
directed by a great and growing body of research men 
and women into those regions where it was thought they 
might make their homes. 

In the brief space of a short article, and to avoid 
what would be almost a bare enumeration of plant 
names, I prefer to treat of only a few of the many im- 
portant problems with which the office is working, pass- 
ing by, also, the introduction of the Durum wheat, the 
Japanese rice, and giving the Siberian alfalfas, which 
are earning for the farmers of the country many mil- 
lions of dollars a year, a bare mention, for the reason 
that they have been so often described in the magazines 
and daily papers. 

The mango is one of the really great fruits of the 
world. India, with its hundreds of millions of people, 
has for centuries held it sacred, and celebrates annual 
ceremonies in its honor. The great Mogul Akbar, who 
reigned in the sixteenth century, planted the famous 
Lak Bag, an orchard of a hundred thousand mangos. 



NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 305 

and some of these still remain alive. It is a fruit the 
importance of which Americans are at last beginning 
to recognize, notwithstanding the unfortunate discredit 
which the worthless seedling mangos of the West Indies 
have given it in the minds of Americans generally. 

There are probably more varieties of mangos than 
there are of peaches. I have heard of one collection of 
five hundred different sorts in India. There are ex- 
quisitely flavored varieties no larger than a plum, and 
there are delicious sorts the fruits of which are six 
pounds in weight. In India, where the wage of a coolie 
is not over ten cents a day, there are varieties which sell 
for $6.60 a hundred, and the commonest sorts bring 
over a cent apiece. 

The great mango trees of India are said to reach a 
height of seventy feet, and are so loaded down with fruit 
that over $150 worth has been sold from a single tree. 
These fine varieties, practically as free from fiber as a 
freestone peach, can be eaten with a spoon as easily as a 
cantaloupe. Trainloads of these are shipped from the 
mango-growing centers of India and distributed in the 
densely peopled cities of that great semi-tropical em- 
pire; and yet, notwithstanding the great importance 
of this fruit, the agricultural study of it from the new 
standpoint has scarcely been begun. I believe that It 
has never, for example, been tested on any but its own 
roots. 

We have gathered together in Florida and Porto 
Rico and Hawaii more than a hundred varieties, and 
some which we have fruited have already attracted the 
attention of the fancy fruit dealers, who agree that the 
demand for these will increase as fast as the supply can 



306 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

be created and maintain that extravagant prices, such 
as fifty or even seventy-five cents apiece, will be paid for 
the large, showy, delicious fruits. Last year three hun- 
dred dozen Mulgoba mangos were sold in Florida, for 
three dollars a dozen. The Governor of Porto Rico has 
committed himself to a policy which, if carried out, will 
cover the island with hundreds of thousands of mango 
trees of the better varieties. 

One of the oldest cultivated plants in the world is the 
date palm. At least four thousand years ago it was 
growing on the banks of the Euphrates, and it is this 
plant and the camel that together made it possible for 
the Arabs to populate the great deserts of northern 
Africa and Asia. The date palms would grow where the 
water was alkaline, and the camels were able to make 
long journeys across the desert to take the dates to 
the coast to market and sell them for wheat and 
olives. 

In these deserts of the old world, millions of Arabs 
live on dates, for the date palm can be cultivated on 
land so salty as to prevent the culture of any other pay- 
ing crop, and it will live in the hottest regions on the 
face of the globe ; not even a temperature of 125 degrees 
Fahrenheit will affect it. This obliging plant does not, 
however, insist on such temperatures, but will stand 
some frost, and has been known to live where the 
mercury falls to 12 degrees Fahrenheit. 

It is also the only wood obtainable in the oases of 
the Sahara, and on the shores of Arabia boats are 
made of it. 

The date palm has both male and female flowers and 
they occur on separate plants, and the Arabs have to 



NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 307 

plant one male for every plantation of a hundred fe- 
males, making a harem as it were. The artificial polli- 
nation or fertilization of the female palms is one of the 
most interesting processes practised with plants, a 
spraj' of flowers from a male palm being bound witli a 
bit of palm-leaf fiber in each inflorescence of the fe- 
male tree. Propagation of the date palm can be ac- 
complished by means of seeds, or suckers, which are 
thrown up at the base of the palm. Suckers will start, 
however, on land so salty that the seeds refused to grow 
on it. 

Four years from seed, trees of some varieties begin to 
bear and in six years will have paying crops of dates. 
They live to a much greater age than almost any other 
of the fruit trees, and specimens a century old are said 
to be still a good investment. 

The date is not a dry-land crop, but requires irri- 
gation to grow and produce fruit. A plantation once 
established requires to be kept free of weeds, to be 
pollinated when the palms come into bloom, and to have 
the fruit harvested when ripe. Of insect pests we know 
too little as yet, though the prospective planter should 
count this in his estimate of expense; remembering, 
however, that modern scientific methods have overcome 
the greatest fruit pests, and that these on the palm are 
not different in general character from those which are 
now under complete control. 

Very little pruning of the palms is necessary, and the 
harvesting is very simple, since the dates grow in great 
bunches, which often weigh from twenty to forty pound : 
apiece. 

There are over a hundred varieties of dates dot? 



308 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

growing In the government gardens in California and 
Arizona, from which are being distributed to prospec- 
tive planters the suckers as they grow. This accom- 
plishment of the Department of Agriculture is not the 
result of any one man's effort, but the product of at 
least a dozen minds working over a period of twenty 
years and in seven different countries. And the names 
of these investigators deserve to be here chronicled be- 
fore their part of this unusual work is forgotten, as the 
industry which is now growing rapidly brings new per- 
sonalities into the field. Water T. Swingle, to whom is 
due the credit for the most profound work which has 
been done; H. E. Van Demen, J. W. Toumey, R. H. 
Forbes, T. H. Kearney, P. H. Dorsett, A. V. Stuben- 
rauch, S. C. Mason, A. J. Pieters, Bruce Drummond, 
Consul Haggleson, E. A. Bessey, Dr. Vinson, Bernard 
Johnson, and David Fairchild are the names of those 
who took the most active part in this problem, while the 
name of Mr. Barbour Lathrop, of Chicago, should be 
specially mentioned, since it was through his generosity 
that the writer was able to make a study of the Persian 
and Arabian date regions. 

There are among these hundred varieties those which 
candy on the tree, others which are used mainly for 
cooking, and some which are hard and not sticky. 
There are early varieties and late-ripening ones, va- 
rieties short and long, and every sort can be told by the 
grooves on its seeds. 

One of the finest varieties is the Deglet Noor, which 
will bear from 80 to 132 pounds of dates per tree. As 
the dates sell from 8 to 35 and even 50 cents a pound, 
the possibilities of a profit of at least $150 an acre 



NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 309 

has been set as the probable mean on well-managed 
plantations. 

The date as a delicacy is known to every American 
child, but, as a food, remains to be discovered by the 
American public. When the date plantations of Ari- 
zona and California come into full bearing, as they 
should in about ten years, the hard, dry dates, for ex- 
ample, now quite unknown on our markets, are sure to 
come into prominence and find their way to the tables 
of the poor as well as of the rich. The heat of our 
American summers is forcing us to study the hot 
weather diets of other countries, and dates are sure to 
become important items of food. 

The persimmon of the South, on which the opossum 
fattens, is a very different fruit from its relative the 
kaki, or persimmon of the Orient, the growing of which 
is so great an industry in Japan as to nearly equal the 
Japanese orange-growing industry in importance. Our 
persimmon is a wild fruit, which will some day be do- 
mesticated, while the kaki has been cultivated so long 
that it is represented by hundreds of distinct varieties 
of different forms and colors. It is true that the 
Oriental persimmon has been grown in this country ; in 
fact, the census records a production of 68 tons ; but 
this is scarcely a beginning as compared with the 
194,000 tons which is the output of Japan. 

We have misunderstood the persimmon. Our own 
wild ones we can eat only after they have been touched 
by the frost, and the imported Japanese ones we have 
left until they become soft and mushy and almost on the 
verge of decay. We never thought until quite recently 
of wondering whether in a land where the persimmon 



aiO ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

had been cultivated for centuries they would not have 
worked out some artificial method of removing the 
objectionable pucker. In Japan we find this is done by 
packing the fruit in barrels saturated with sake, and 
Mr. H. C. Gore, of the Department of Agriculture, is 
now working out new methods of processing the Oriental 
persimmon, so that it can be eaten when hard as an 
apple, and there will no longer be any reason why it 
should not take its place among the great fruits of the 
country. 

We have also introduced a Chinese persimmon which 
Mr. Frank Meyer found in the Ming Tombs Valley, 
the Tamopan, four inches in diameter, and seedless and 
puckerless. 

The whole question of the improvement of the per- 
simmon has been opened up and we are getting for this 
work the small-fruited species called "lotus," from 
Algeria; a tropical species with white, eheose-like pulp, 
from Manila, Mexico, Erithea, and Rhodesia ; species 
from Bangalore, from Sydney, from Madras, from the 
Mankau Pass, in China, and from the Caucasus. 

There are large areas of the West where the native 
persimmon is the slowest tree to wake up in the warm 
spells that visit that region in February. It is reported 
that in Oklahoma last February the temperature went 
up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is as high as the 
average midsummer temperature. This will wake up 
almost any tree or plant except the persimmon, and 
when a temperature of 17 degrees below zero follows, it 
kills thousands of plants to the ground. If the fine 
imported varieties can by breeding be made to share 
this characteristic with their American relatives, it 



NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 311 

will be an added reason for their extensive cultivation. 
If the Oriental timber bamboo had produced seeds 
oftener than once in forty years it would long ago have 
been introduced and be now growing in the South. The 
fact that it had to be brought over in the form of living 
plants, and that these plants required special treat- 
ment, has stood in the way of the quick distribution of 
this most important plant throughout those portions of 
America where it will grow. After several unsuccessful 
attempts, a beginning has at last been made, and the 
Department has a grove of Oriental bamboos in 
northern Florida, and a search is being made in dif- 
ferent parts of the world for all those species which are 
adapted to our climate. 

It was while I was traveling in Japan for Mr. Barbour 
Lathrop, of Chicago, that he called my attention to the 
great importance of the bamboo as a new crop for the 
South. He was so firmly convinced of its importance 
that he offered to purchase and send as a gift to the 
country two thousand plants for trial. Unfortunately, 
the offer was not accepted, and it was not until several 
years later that the large shipment was made which is 
now establishing itself in northern Florida, where the 
first commercial grove of these remarkable plants is to 
find its home. 

"Of what practical use is the bamboo?" is the ques- 
tion of the Occidental, and it must seem to the Oriental 
as singular as his question would be, "Of what use is 
the white pine to the American?" For there is no 
plant in the world which is put to so many uses as the 
bamboo, and in the regions where it grows it is ap- 
parently the most indispensable of all plants. 



312 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

In this country I predict it will be used earliest for 
barrel hoops, for cheap irrigating pipes, for vine-stakes 
and trellises, for light ladders and stays for overloaded 
fruit trees, for baskets and light-fruit shipping crates, 
and for food. As wind-breaks and to hold canal banks 
and prevent the erosion of steep hillsides, there are 
species which excel all other plants, while for light 
furniture and jalousies it is sure to find a market when- 
ever the green timber is available. 

Unlike the forest trees, the giant bamboos are trut 
grasses. They send underground stems long distances 
through the soil, binding it together with hard, flintlike 
rhizomes. They send up from this network of roots and 
rhizomes the most rapid-growing shoots of any plants 
known ; and, like giant asparagus stems, these shoot 
at the rate of a foot a day into the air. So fresh and 
tender are these shoots that they can be snapped off 
with the hand, and when cooked they form one of the 
great vegetable delicacies of the world. 

No wonder, then, considering all the uses of this 
plant, that the Chief Forester of Japan, when I asked 
him about the value of the bamboo industry in his 
country, said at once: "It's the best-paying plant 
industry in Japan." I am aware that there enters in 
here that complicated question of the cheapness of 
Oriental labor, and that there are many things which 
we cannot do with the bamboo which are done in Japan 
and China. But all these things aside, the bamboo still 
remains one of the most promising plant introductions. 

While perhaps the great majority of these new 
plants are brought in or purchased directly as results 
of investigations carried on in Washington, some of the 



NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 313 

most valuable things have been sent in by men and 
women living as missionaries or voluntary exiles in the 
most out-of-the-way places in the world. 

Plant introduction is not a matter of one generation, 
and it is most preeminently a work requiring many men 
working together, and I doubt if there is to be found 
within the government service, or outside of it, a better 
example of cooperative, constructive investigation than 
that connected with the Bureau of Plant Industry in 
the establishment of new plant industries in the United 
States. 

On the streets of almost any Japanese city the fruit 
and vegetable stalls have for sale an attractive blanched 
vegetable called udo. It is a neai^ relative of a well- 
known wild plant in New England, the spikenard, but 
a much larger-plant. There are many ways in which it is 
prepared by both the Japanese and the foreigners who 
live in Japan ; but, either as a salad or cooked in the 
same way in which asparagus is cooked, .it deserves to 
rank as one of the important vegetables of the world. 
It is easy to grow; it does not require replanting 
oftener than once in nine or ten years ; it can be cropped 
in the autumn of in the spring, and it yields large crops 
of shoots, which are often two feet long and an inch 
or more in diameter at the base. These brilliant white 
shoots are edible to their very bases without the least 
objectionable fiber, and not in this respect like aspar- 
agus, of which only the tips are- fit to eat. 

It wa^ while traveling with Mr. Barbour Lathrop 
that the writer first made the acquaintance of this 
vegetable and at his suggestion that plants of it were 
sent to America, in 1902. 



314 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

One of our best-known botanical authorities once 
remarked to me: "You cannot introduce a new vege- 
table ; it's impossible." While it might be admitted that 
the introduction of a new vegetable is a long under- 
taking, extending perhaps over the period of a gener- 
ation, it should not be left out of account that the means 
at our disposal to-day are immeasurably more power- 
ful than they were even two decades ago. The advent 
of the great hotels and the sympathetic interest oi the 
great magazines are two elements which to-day make 
possible what yesterday would have been quite impos- 
sible. 

The magazines will talk about a new vegetable and 
can now illustrate it as never before and in this way 
encourage people to ask for it, and the great hotels 
have learned to profit by the introduction of novelties. 

Of course, from the narrow standpoint of the aspar- 
agus grower we should all eat asparagus, and he 
watches every sign that indicates any tendency on the 
part of the public to consume more of his vegetable, 
and he is not often likely to look with favor on any 
rival. But let fancy prices be established by a legiti- 
mate publicity and the encouragement of some of the 
large hotels, and the growers of asparagus will soon 
find out that there is money in growing the new vege- 
table. We can trust to a final readjustment of things, 
once the new plant is thoroughly .established. 

It was with this point in view that an arrangement 
was made with the National Geographic Society, at its 
last Annual Banquet, to serve as one of the courses the 
dasheen, which is the root of a large-leaved plant re- 
lated to the Hawaiian taro. The guests of the Society 



NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 315 

were kind enough to pass judgment on this new intro- 
duction, deciding it to he a valuahle addition to the 
menu, many even going so far as to declare that it sur- 
passed the potato in excellence. 

The stimulus given to the cultivation of this dasheen 
by this exhibition has been very great and to-dav 
thousands have heard of it, and, if they saw it offered 
on the menu of a first-class hotel, would be much more 
likely to call for it than if they had never read of its 
peculiar adaptability to the moist but well-drained 
lands of the Southern States. 



XXIII 

BACTERIA AND SOIL FERTILITY * 
P. E. Brown 

The problem of obtaining maximum crops is centu- 
ries old but the agricultural world is still awaiting its 
solution. 

It is known now that the crop any soil will yield under 
particular climatic conditions depends on the character 
and condition of the soil. If the soil is poor and infer- 
tile, the crop may be expected to be small ; if it is rich 
and climatic conditions are favorable, the yields should 
be large. The real problem, then, is how to make the 
soil fertile and how to keep it so. If it is poor, then 
improvement is necessary ; if it is good, further im- 
provement may pay. There are probably few soils so 
poor that proper methods cannot put them on a paying 
basis ; on the other hand, there are no soils so rich that 
they will always continue to be fertile. 

Therefore, a study of soil fertility, or the crop pro- 
ducing power of a soil under given climatic conditions, 
is of vast importance. Men must have knowledge of 
the fertility of a soil if they would properly regulate 
its support power so that the needed supply of plant 
food may be available for crop production. 

Plant food consists of those chemical elements which 

* From Bacteria and Soil Fertility, by permission of the Iow» Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, Iowa State College. 

316 



BACTERIA AND SOIL FERTILITY 317 

are essential for the growth of plants and includes a 
large number of substances. Among these, nitrogen, 
potassium, phosphorus, and sulphur are most likely to 
be lacking in soils. In rare cases other elements may bo 
deficient, but in normal soils, if enough of these four 
elements is present in a soluble, available form, the sup- 
port power of the soil is satisfactory. 

Many soils contain enough of these four necessary 
elements but they are locked up in an insoluble and un- 
available form and hence must be changed and made 
soluble to be of use to crops. How is this change ac- 
complished.'' What determines the production of 
soluble plant food in the soil? What regulates the sup- 
port power of the soil.'' These are the questions that 
require a definite answer. 

The factors which bring about the change of insol- 
uble substances into soluble in the soil may be grouped 
into three classes, physical, chemical, and bacteriolog- 
ical. 

The physical factors, such as light, heat, water, air, 
etc., and the chemical factors, such as soil acidity or 
sourness, the character of the chemical compounds 
present, etc., have been known and studied for many 
years. The bacteriological factors have come into 
prominence only quite recently, but now they are recog- 
nized to be of as much, if not more importance than the 
other two groups. 

It has been well said that these three groups of fac- 
tors working together constitute the "commissary de- 
partment for the army of plant life." 

While, therefore, it is quite generally known now 
that the soil is the home of myriads of microscopic 



318 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

plants called bacteria, and that these have much to do 
with fertility, there is still a great deal of haziness 
about the subject in the public mind. 

Before considering the part which bacteria take in 
liberating plant food it is well to bear in mind the 
fundamental facts about bacteria. 

"Bacteria are minute plants, consisting of single cells. 
These cells are made up of a cell-w. 11, and the living 
substance or protoplasm within the cell-wall. In the 
protoplasm the life processes are carried on. When 
food is absorbed, it passes into the cell through the cell- 
wall and the necessary portions are taken up by the 
protoplasm while the waste Is eliminated, passing out 
through the cell-wall. 

There are three main types of bacteria grouped ac- 
cording to form. They are the cocci or spheres, the 
bacilli or rods, and the spirilla or spirals. These 
groups have been popularly described as billiard balls, 
lead pencils, and corkscrews. By far the largest number 
of soil bacteria belong to the group of bacilli or rods. 

These simple organisms multiply by fission, that is, 
one cell divides into two equal parts, which may sep- 
arate or may remain united. The spherical bacteria, 
due to their method of multiplication, frequently ap- 
pear as packets of varying numbers of organisms, while 
the rods and spirals appear singly or in chains. 

The splitting of one organism Into two may be com- 
pleted In twenty minutes to one half hour under very 
favorable conditions. At this rate, In one day one 
organism would become about 300,000,000,000,000. 
As a matter of fact, however, such a rapid multiplica- 
tion cannot occur, as food conditions do not remain 



BACTERIA AND SOIL FERTILITY 319 

satisfactory and the growth of the organism gives 
products that restrict development. 

Bacteria arc very small, ranging from 1-50,000 to 
1-1,000 of an inch in length and averaging about 
1-25,000 of an inch. 

Many bacteria have flagclla, or long thread-like ap- 
pendages, by means of which thej'^ move about freely 
in any liquid in which they may be growing. These 
flagella may be attached in various ways, singly at the 
end of the organism, in tufts of several at one or both 
ends, or scattered indiscriminately over the organism. 

Some bacteria, under certain conditions, produce so- 
called spores, or cells surrounded by a very resistant 
cell-wall. They will remain alive practically indefinitely 
if not exposed to extremes of heat or cold and if kept 
dry ; and when placed under favorable conditions will 
germinate and produce active bacteria again. 

All bacteria may be included in one of two large 
classes depending on their functions, or the character 
of their activities. These are parasites and the sapro- 
phytes. The parasites include all the disease producers. 
The saprophytes are the decay producers. Many 
people think of all bacteria as connected with disease. 
They know that typhoid, diphtheria, tuberculosis, 
and other diseases are caused by bacteria and fall 
into the error of believing that all organisms are 
active in causing some dread disease. Such is far from 
being the case, however. The saprophytic, or decay 
bacteria, are invaluable. They have been called the 
"link between the world of the living and the dead." 
They transform dead materials back into living matter 
and thus complete the cycles through which, in nature. 



320 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

all substances must go. Bacteria are everywhere, in 
the air, the water, the soil, but contrary to the common 
belief, which is that we are becoming "bacteria crazy," 
such general distribution is no cause for alarm but 
rather a source of benefit. A bacteria-free world would 
soon be a dead world. 

Enormous numbers of bacteria inhabit the soil, some 
of them harmful, but the vast majority beneficial. 
Actual counts have shown that the numbers present in 
the soils may vary from a few thousand per gram to 
over fifty million per gram. 

There are certain conditions affecting their growth. 
In other words, the bacteria in the soil, just as in any 
other environment, are greatly influenced by certain 
physical and chemical conditions. These conditions are 
moisture, temperature, aeration, reaction, and food 
supply. 

A proper amount of water in the soil is as necessar}' 
for the growth of bacteria as for crops. Either excess- 
ive moisture or severe drought interferes with bacterial 
growth very considerably. Many organisms are killed 
by too much moisture, many others, by insufficient 
moisture. Merely drying out a soil by exposing it to 
the air, however, will not kill the bacteria present. Such 
soils, kept for years in an air-dry state, have been shown 
to contain certain bacteria which had evidently been in 
a dormant state or condition. Such farm practices as 
drainage, which removes excessive water, or cultivation, 
which prevents undue loss of water by evaporation, have 
an important Influence on the bacteria in the soil. 
Recent work has shown that small variations in 
moisture are of little influence on bacteria in the field, 



BACTERIA AND SOIL FERTILITY 321 

other factors apparently being of greater importance, 
but when variations are large, then moisture becomes 
the governing factor. 

Every organism grows the best in a certain temper- 
ature. Each also has so-called maximum and minimum 
temperatures at which point growth ceases. The best 
temperature for most soil organisms ranges from 65° to 
90° F., although of course there are exceptions to this 
statement. Most organisms are not killed by excessive 
cold but merely remain dormant. In fact, it has been 
shown recently that certain bacteria are alive and 
active in soil in late winter, at a soil temperature some- 
what below the freezing point. It is generally con- 
sidered, however, and with reason, that the greatest 
bacterial activities occur in the soil during the summer 
and are then of the most significance. 

Depending upon their requirements as to air, bac- 
teria may be divided into three classes: those which 
require air for their growth ; those which grow only in 
the absence of air ; and those which prefer air but will 
grow without it. In general it may be said that the 
beneficial bacteria in the soil need air. Hence in heavy 
clay soils where there is not enough air, methods which 
increase the circulation of oxygen in the soil increase 
bacterial activities ; these increase the solution of plant 
food and this ultimately increases plant production. On 
the other hand, if there is too much air present, as in 
light sandy soils, the bacterial activities will be too 
great and the humus will be burned up too rapidly, 
plant food will be produced in too large quantities to 
be utilized by the crops, and more or less extensive losses 
of valuable soil elements will occur. Methods must be 



322 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

practised with such soils, which will make it more com' 
pact and prevent the excessive circulation of air, reduc- 
ing bacterial activities to what is best. 

The reaction of a soil is its relative acidity, or "sour- 
ness" or alkalinity. The reaction means much from the 
bacterial standpoint. Soils which have become acid or 
sour are notably unproductive and this is largely due 
to the fact that the growth of beneficial bacteria in 
such soils is checked. Some bacteria are probablj^ 
favored by acid conditions, but those organisms which 
bring about the solution of the important plant food 
constituents refuse to develop in acid soils. Such an 
unfavorable condition may be remedied by applications 
of ground limestone or caustic lime in varying amounts. 
Applications of ground limestone to sour soils have 
been shown to be followed by increased beneficial bac- 
teria activities and later by increased crop production. 

Bacteria require food for growth just as truly as do 
crops, and it is because of this need that they influence 
fertility. In the process of taking up food from the 
chemical compounds in the soil, the bacteria cause 
changes in the compounds, making them soluble and 
hence available for the growth of plants. Most soil 
bacteria live principally on organic matter, or humus, 
and the products of their own activity. Some few 
species are known which live in the absence of organic 
materials. Usually, however, soils without humus are 
without bacteria. Increasing the humus content, there- 
fore, may be expected to increase the bacterial life. 
That is actually the case up to a certain limit, which 
varies widely for different soils. 

Beyond a certain point, however, the amount of food 



BACTERIA AND SOIL FERTILITY 323 

ceases to govern bacterial growth and a lack of mois- 
ture or the presence of acidity or sourness may offset 
the benefits of a greater food supply. The minerals in 
the soil solution also have some influence on the bac- 
teria. Certain groups are favored by some substances 
and others restricted or killed by certain other chem- 
icals. Thus the bacterial floras of the soils of wet and 
dry regions are quite different. 

The bacteria furthermore not only act on the humus 
or organic matter in the soil and bring about its 
solution in the process of obtaining their food, but they 
also attack the mineral portion of the soil and change 
insoluble portions of that into soluble. 

We have considered the fact that the fertility of a 
soil is determined very largely by the bacterial activ- 
ities going on therein. We have discussed briefly the 
nature of bacteria, their form, size, multiplication, etc., 
the numbers present in the soil and the effect of various 
physical and chemical conditions in the soil on their de- 
velopment. We have found also that in" the course of 
their life activities, bacteria attack the organic and 
mineral portions of the soil and transform Insoluble 
constituents into forms soluble and available for crop 
nourishment. 

In conclusion, the fact must be emphasized that the 
bacterial processes going on in the soil cannot be 
ignored in a consideration of its fertility. The physical 
and chemical character of the soil alone will not tell us 
its crop-producing power and we must depend on the 
results of tests of bacterial activities. The recent 
development of methods in this direction gives us 
reason to hope that in the near future bacterial tests 



324. ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

of fertility may become of considerable practical value. 

From the practical standpoint, it should be evident 
that the greatest care ought to be exercised on every 
farm to maintain conditions satisfactory for the best 
growth of beneficial bacterial species. Moisture con- 
ditions should be governed as far as possible by drain- 
age or cultivation, aeration should be carefully reg- 
ulated to keep the destruction of the humus from 
proceeding too rapidly; and the reaction of the soil 
should not be allowed to become acid, adding lime if 
necessary to prevent it. If these conditions are care- 
fully governed and the humus content of the soils is 
properly maintained, and proper rotations containing 
a legume are employed, the bacteria can be depended 
upon to perform their part faithfully and well. If 
chemical analyses have shown sufficient amounts of the 
necessary mineral plant food constituents, the bacteria 
imder the best conditions will transform it into an 
available form to satisfy the needs of the growing crop. 

In short, the relation between bacteria and soil 
fertility is very close anrd very vital and systems of 
permanent agriculture must rest firmly on a bacteri- 
ological basis to be of value. 



XXIV 

WORMS AND THE SOIL 

Charles Darwin 

Worms have played a more important part in the 
history of the world than most persons would at first 
suppose. In almost all humid countries they are extra- 
ordinarily numerous, and for their size possess great 
muscular power. In many parts of England a weight 
of more than ten tons of dry earth annually passes 
through their bodies and is brought to the surface on 
each acre of land; so that the whole superficial bed of 
vegetable mould passes through their bodies in the 
course of every few years. From the collapsing of the 
old burrows the mould is in constant though slow move- 
ment, and the particles composing it are thus rubbed 
together. By these means fresh surfaces are contin- 
ually exposed to the action of the carbonic acid in the 
soil, and of the humus-acids which appear to be still 
more efficient in the decomposition of rocks. The gen- 
eration of the humus-acids is probably hastened during 
the digestion of the many half-decayed leaves which 
worms consume. Thus the particles of earth, forming 
the superficial mould, are subjected to conditions 
eminently favorable for their decomposition and dis- 
integration. Moreover, the particles of the softer 
rocks suffer some amount of mechanical trituration in 

325 



326 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the muscular gizzards of worms, in which small stoneS 
serve as mill-stones. 

The finely levigated castings, when brought to the 
surface in a moist condition, flow during rainy weather 
down any moderate slope ; and the smaller particles are 
washed far down even a gentl}" inclined surface. Cast- 
ings when dry often crumple into small pellets and these 
are apt to roll down any sloping surface. Where the 
land is quite level and is covered with herbage, and 
where the climate is humid so that much dust cannot be 
blown away, it appears at first sight impossible that 
there should be any appreciable amount of subaerial 
denudation ; but worm castings are blown, especially 
whilst moist and viscid, in one uniform direction by the 
prevalent winds which are accompanied by rain. By 
these several means the superficial mould is prevented 
from accumulating to a great thickness ; and a thick 
bed of mould checks in many ways the disintegration of 
the underlying rocks and fragments of rock. 

The removal of worm castings by the above means 
leads to results which are far from insignificant. It 
has been shown that a layer of earth, two tenths of an 
inch in thickness, is in many places annually brought 
to the surface per acre; and if a small part of this 
amount flows, or rolls, or is washed, even for a short 
distance down every inclined surface, or is repeatedly 
blown in one direction, a great effect will be produced 
in the course of ages. It was found by measurements 
and calculations that on a surface with a mean inclina- 
tion of 9°26', two and four tenths cubic inches of 
earth which had been ejected by worms crossed, in the 
course of a year, a horizontal line one 3'^ard in length ; so 



WORMS AND THE SOIL 327 

that 240 cubic inches would cross a line 100 yards in 
length. This latter amount in a damp state would 
weigh liy2 pounds. Thus a considerable weight of 
earth is continually moving down each side of every 
valley, and will in time reach its bed. Finally this 
earth will be transported by the streams flowing in the 
valleys into the ocean, the great receptacle for all 
matter denuded from the land. It is known from the 
amount of sediment annually delivered into the sea by 
the Mississippi, that its enormous drainage-area must 
on an average be lowered .00263 of an inch each year ; 
and this would suffice in four and a half million years 
to lower the whole drainage-area to the level of the sea- 
shore. So that, if a small fraction of the layer of fine 
earth, two tenths of an inch in thickness, which is 
annually brought to the surface by worms, is carried 
away, a great result cannot fail to be produced within 
a period which no geologist considers extremely long. 
Archaeologists ought to be grateful to worms, as they 
protect and preserve for an indefinitdy long period 
every object not liable to decay, which is dropped on 
the surface of the land, by burying it beneath their 
castings. Thus, also, many elegant and curious tessel- 
lated pavements and other ancient remains have been 
preserved; though no doubt the worms have in these 
cases been largely aided by earth washed and blown 
from the adjoining land, especially when cultivated. 
The old tessellated pavements have, however, often suf- 
fered by having subsided unequally from being un- 
equally undermined by the worms. Even old massive 
walls may be undermined and subside; and no building 
is in this respect safe, unless the foundations lie six 



328 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

or seven feet beneath the surface, at a depth at which 
worms cannot work. It is probablq that many mono- 
liths and some old walls have fallen down from having 
been undermined by worms. 

Worms prepare the ground in an excellent manner 
for the growth of fibrous-rooted plants and for seed- 
lings of all kinds. They periodically expose the mould 
to the air, and sift it so that no stones larger than the 
particles which they can swallow are left in it. They 
■mingle the whole intimately together, like a gardener 
who prepares fine soil for his .choicest plants. In this 
state it is well fitted to retain moisture and to absorb 
all soluble substances, as well as for the process of 
nitrification. The bones of dead animals, the harder 
parts of insects, the shells of land-molluscs, leaves, 
twigs, etc., are before long all buried beneath the ac- 
cumulated castings of worms, and are thus brought 
in a more or less decayed state within reach of the roots 
of plants. Worms likewise drag an infinite number of 
dead leaves and other parts of plants into their bur- 
rows, partly for the sake of plugging them up and 
partly as food. 

The leaves which are dragged into the burrows as 
food, after being torn into the finest shreds, partially 
digested, and saturated with the intestinal and urinary 
secretions, are commingled with much earth. This 
earth forms the dark colored, rich humus which almost 
everywhere covers the surface of the land with a fairly 
well-defined layer or mantle. Von Hensen* placed two 
worms in a vessel eighteen inches in diameter, which 
was filled with sand, on which fallen leaves were strewed ; 

* "Zeitschrift fiir Wissenschaft," Zoolog. B. XXVIII. 1877, p. 360. 



WORMS AND' THE SOIL 329 

and these were soon dragged into their burrows to a 
depth of three inches. After about six weeks an almost 
uniform layer of sand four tenths of an inch in thick- 
ness was converted into humus by having passed 
through the alimentary canals of these two worms. It 
is believed by some people that worm burrows, which 
often penetrate the ground almost perpendicularly to 
a depth of five or six feet, materially aid in its drain- 
age ; notwithstanding that the viscid castings piled over 
the mouths of the burrows prevent or check the rain- 
water directly entering them. They allow the air 
to penetrate deeply into the ground. They also great- 
ly facilitate the downward passage of roots of moderate 
size; and these will be nourished by the humus with 
which the burrows are lined. Many seeds owe their ger- 
mination to having been covered by castings ; and others 
buried to a considerable depth beneath accumulated 
castings lie dormant, until at some future time they 
are accidentally uncovered and germinate. 

Worms are poorly provided with sense-organs, for 
they cannot be said to see, although they can just 
distinguish between light and darkness; they are 
completely deaf, and have only a feeble power of smell ; 
the sense of touch alone is well developed. They can 
therefore learn little about the outside world, and it 
is surprising that they should exhibit some skill in lining 
their burrows with their castings and with leaves, and 
in the case of some species in piling up their castings 
into tower-like constructions. But it is far more sur- 
prising that they should apparently exhibit some degree 
of intelligence instead of a mere blind instinctive 
impulse, in their manner of plugging up the mouths of 



330 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

their burrows. They act in nearly the same manner as 
would a man, who had to close a cylindrical tube with 
different kinds of leaves, petioles, triangles of paper, 
etc., for they commonly seize such objects by their 
pointed ends. But with thin objects a certain number 
are drawn in by their broader ends. They do not act 
in the same unvarying manner in all cases, as do most 
of the lower animals ; for instance, they do not drag 
in leaves by their foot-stalks, unless the basal part of 
the blade is as narrow as the apex, or narrower than it. 
When we behold a wide, turf-covered expanse, we 
should remember that its smoothness, on which so much 
of its beauty depends, is mainly due to all the inequal- 
ities having been slowly leveled by worms. It is a 
marvelous reflection that the whole of the superficial 
mould over any such expanse has passed, and will again 
pass, every few years through the bodies of worms. 
The plough is one of the most ancient and most valuable 
of man's inventions ; but long before he existed the land 
was in fact regularly ploughed, and still continues to 
be thus ploughed by earth-worms. It may be doubted 
whether there are many other animals which have 
played so important a part in the history of the world, 
as have these lowly organized creatures. Some other 
animals, however, still more lowly organized, namely 
corals, have done far more conspicuous work in having 
constructed innumerable reefs and islands in the great 
oceans ; but these are almost confined to the tropical 
zones. 



XXV 

THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 

Thomas H. Huxley 

When a variety has arisen, the conditions of exis- 
tence are such as to exercise an influence which is exactly 
comparable to that of artificial selection. By con- 
ditions of existence I mean two things, — there are 
conditions which are furnished by the physical, the 
inorganic world, and there are conditions of existence 
which are furnished by the organic world. There is, in 
the first place. Climate; under that head I include only 
temperature and the varied amount of moisture of 
particular places. In the next place, there is what is 
technically called Station, which means, given the 
climate, the particular kind of place in which an 
animal or plant lives or grows ; for example, the station 
of a fish is in the water, of a fresh-water fish in fresh 
water; the station of a marine fish is in the sea, and a 
marine animal may have a station higher or deeper. 
So again with land animals : the differences in their 
stations are those of different soils and neighborhoods ; 
some being best adapted to calcareous, and others to 
an arenaceous soil. The third condition of existence 
is Food, by which I mean food in the broadest s^nse, 
the supply of the materials necessary to the existence 
of an organic being ; in the case of a plant the inorganic 
matters, such as carbonic acid, water, ammonia, and 

331 



332 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the earthy salts or salines ; in the case of the animal tlie 
inorganic and organic matters, which we have seen they 
require ; then these are all, at least the two first, what 
we may call the inorganic or physical conditions of 
existence. Food takes a mid-place, and then come the 
organic conditions ; by which I mean the conditions 
which depend upon the state of the rest of the organic 
creation, upon the number and kind of living beings, 
with which an animal is surrounded. You may class 
these under two heads : there are organic beings, which 
operate as opponents, and there are organic beings 
which operate as helpers to any given organic creature. 
The opponents may be of two kinds: there are the 
indirect opponents, which are what we may call rivals: 
and there are the direct opponents, those which strive to 
destroy the creature; and these we call enemies. B}' 
rivals I mean, of course, in the case of plants, those 
which require for their support the same kind of soil 
and station, and, among animals, those which require 
the same kind of station, or food, or climate ; those are 
the indirect opponents ; the direct opponents are, of 
course, those which prey upon an animal or vegetable. 
The helpers may also be regarded as direct and 
indirect: in the case of a carnivorous animal, for 
example, a particular herbaceous plant may in multi- 
plying be an indirect helper, by enabling the herbivora 
on which the carnivore preys to get more food, and 
thus to nourish the carnivore more abundantly ; the 
direct helper may be best illustrated by reference to 
some parasitic creature, such as the tape-worm. The 
tape-worm exists in the human intestines, so that the 
fewer there are of men the fewer there will be of tape- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 333 

worms, other things being alike. It is a humiliating 
reflection, perhaps, that we may be classed as direct 
helpers to the tape-worm, but the fact is so : we can 
all see that if there were no men there would be no 
tape-worms. 

It is extremely difficult to estimate, in a proper way, 
the importance and the working of the conditions of 
existence. I do not think there were any of us who had 
the remotest notion of properly estimating them until 
the publication of Mr. Darwin's work, which has placed 
them before us with remarkable clearness; and I must 
endeavor, as far as I can in my own fashion, to give 
you some notion of how they work. We shall find it 
easiest to take a simple case, and one as free as possible 
from every kind of complication. 

I will suppose, therefore, that all the habitable part 
of this globe — the dry land, amounting to about 
51,000,000 square miles, — I will suppose that the 
whole of that dry land has the same climate, and 
that it is composed of the same kind of rock or soil, 
so that there will be the same station everywhere; 
we thus get rid of the peculiar influence of different 
climates and stations. I will then imagine that there 
shall be but one organic being in the world, and that 
shall be a plant. In this we start fair. Its food is to 
be carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, and the saline 
matters in the soil, which are, by the supposition, every- 
where alike. We take one single plant, with no 
opponents, no helpers, and no rivals ; it is to be a "fair 
field, and no favor." Now, I will ask you to imagine 
further that it shall be a plant that shall produce 
every year fifty seeds, which is a very moderate number 



334 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

for a plant to produce ; and that, by the action of the 
winds and currents, these seeds shall be equally and 
gradually distributed over the whole surface of the 
land. I want you now to trace out what will occur, 
and you will observe that I am not talking fallaciously 
any more than a mathematician does when he expounds 
his problem. If you show that the conditions of your 
problem are such as may actually occur in nature and 
do not transgress any of the known laws of nature in 
working out your proposition, then you are as safe in 
the conclusion you arrive at as is the mathematician in 
arriving at the solution of his problem. In science, the 
only way of getting rid of the complications with which 
a subject of this kind is environed, is to work in this 
deductive method. What will be the result, then? I 
will suppose that every plant requires one square foot 
of ground to live upon, and the result will be that, in the 
course of nine years, the plant will have occupied every 
single available spot in the whole globe ! I have chalked 
upon the blackboard the figures by which I arrive at 
the result : 



PLANTS 




PLANTS 


I X 50 in 1st year 


= 


60 


50 X 50 " 2nd " 


= 


2,600 


2,500 X 50 " 3rd " 


z=z 


125,000 


125,000 X 50 " 4th " 


=3 


6,250,000 


6,250,000 X 50 " 5th " 


— 


312,600,000 


312,500,000 X 50 " 6th " 


= 


15,625,000,000 


15,625,000,000 X 50 " 7th " 


— 


781,250,000,000 


781,250,000,000 X 50 " 8th " 


= 


39,062,500,000,000 


39,062,500,000,000 X 50 " 9th " 


= 


1,963,125,000,000,000 


61,000,000 sq. miles — the " 






dry surface of thi? earth 1 

X 27,878,400 — the num- f — ^'i* 


ft. 


1,421,798,400,000,000 


ber of sq. ft. in 1 sq. mile 







being 631,326,600,000,000 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 335 

square feet less than would be required at the end of 
the ninth year. 

You will see from this that at the end of the first 
year the single plant will have produced fift^' more of 
its kind; by the end of the second year these will have 
increased to 2,500 ; and so on, in succeeding" years, you 
get beyond even trillions ; and I am not at all sure 
that I could tell you what the proper arithmetical 
denomination of the total number really is ; but, at any 
rate, you will understand the meaning of all those 
noughts. Then you see that, at the bottom, I have 
taken the 51,000,000 of square miles, constituting the 
surface of the dry land; and as the number of square 
feet are placed under and subtracted from the number 
of seeds that would be produced in the ninth year, 3'ou 
can see at once that there would be an immense number 
more of plants than there would be square feet of 
ground for their accommodation. This is certainly 
enough to prove ray point ; that between the eighth and 
ninth years after being planted the single plant would 
have stocked the whole available surface of the earth. 

This is a thing which is hardly conceivable — it seems 
hardly imaginable — yet it is so. It is indeed simply 
the law of Malthus exemplified. Mr. Malthus was a 
clergyman, who worked out this subject most minutely 
and truthfully some years ago ; he showed quite clearly 
— and although he was much abused for his conclusions 
at the time, they have never yet been disproved and 
never will be — ^he showed that in consequence of the 
increase in the number of organic beings in a geometri- 
cal ratio, while the means of existence cannot be made to 
increase in the same ratio, that there must come a time 



336 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

when the number of organic beings will be in excess of 
the power of production of nutriment, and that thus 
some check must arise to the further increase of those 
organic beings. At the end of the ninth year we have 
seen that each plant would not be able to get its full 
square foot of ground, and at the end of another year 
it would have to share that space with fifty others, the 
produce of the seeds which it would give off. 

What, then, takes place? Every plant grows up, 
flourishes, occupies its square foot of ground, and 
gives off its fifty seeds ; but notice this, that out of 
this number only one can come to anything; there are 
thus, as it were, forty-nine chances to one against its 
growing up ; it depends upon the most fortuitous cir- 
cumstances whether any one of these fifty seeds shall 
grow up and flourish, or whether it shall die and perish. 
This is what Mr. Darwin has drawn attention to, and 
called "The Struggle for Existence" ; and I have taken 
this simple case of a plant because some people imagine 
that the phrase seems to imply a sort of fight. 

I have taken this plant and shown you that this is 
the result of the ratio of the increase, the necessary 
result of the arrival of the time coming for every species 
when exactly as many members must be destroyed as 
are born ; that is the inevitable ultimate result of 
the rate of production. Now, what is the result of all 
this? I have said that there are forty-nine struggling 
against every one; and it amounts to this, that the 
smallest possible start given to any one seed may give 
it an advantage which will enable it to get ahead of all 
the others ; anything that will enable any one of these 
seeds to germinate six hours before any of the others 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 337 

will, other things being alike, enable it to choke them 
out altogether. I have shown you that there is no 
particular in which plants will not vary from each 
other; it is quite possible that one of our imaginary 
plants may vary in such a character as the thickness 
of the integument of its seeds ; it might happen that one 
of the plants might produce seeds having a thinner integ- 
ument, and that would enable the seeds of that plant 
to germinate a little quicker than those of any of the 
others, and those seeds would most inevitably extinguish 
the forty-nine times as many that were struggling with 
them, 

I have put it in this way, but you see the practical 
result of the process is the same as if some person had 
nurtured the one and destroyed the other seeds. It 
does not matter how the variation is produced, so long 
as it is once allowed to occur. The variation In the 
plant once fairly started tends to become hereditary 
and raproduce itself ; the seeds would spread themselves 
in the same way and take part in the struggle with the 
forty-nine hundred, or forty-nine thousand, with which 
they might be exposed. Thus, by degrees, this variety, 
with some slight organic change or modification, must 
spread itself over the whole surface of the habitable 
globe, and extirpate or replace the other kinds. That 
is what is meant by Natural Selection; that is the kind 
of argument by which it is perfectly demonstrable that 
the conditions of existence may play exactly the same 
part for natural varieties as man does for domesticated 
varieties. No one doubts at all that particular circum- 
stances may be more favorable for one plant and less 
so for another, and the moment you admit that, you 



338 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

admit the selective power of nature. Now, although I 
have been putting a hypothetical case, you must not 
suppose that I have been reasoning hypothetically. 
There are plenty of direct experiments which bear out 
what we call the theory of natural selection; there is 
extremely good authority for the statement that if you 
take the seed of mixed varieties of wheat and sow it, 
collecting the seed next year and sowing it again, at 
length you will find that out of all your varieties only 
two or three have lived, or perhaps even only one. 
There were one or two varieties which were best fitted to 
get on, and they have killed out the other kinds in just 
the same way and with just the same certainty as if 
you had taken the trouble to remove them. As I have 
already said, the operation of nature is exactly the 
same as the artificial operation of man. 

But if this be true of that simple case, which I put 
before you, where there is nothing but the rivalry of one 
member of a species with others, what must be the 
operation of selective conditions, when you recollect 
as a matter of fact, that for every species of animal or 
plant there are fifty or a hundred species which might 
all, more or less, be comprehended in the same climate, 
food, and station ; that every plant has multitudinous 
animals which prej^ upon it, and which are its direct 
opponents ; and that these have other animals preying 
upon them; that every plant has its indirect helpers 
in the birds that scatter around its seeds, and 
the animals that manure it with their dung. I say, when 
these things are considered, it seems impossible that 
any variation which may arise in a species in nature 
should not tend in some way or other either to be a 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 339 

little better or worse than the previous stock; if it is 
a little better, it will have an advantage over and tend 
to extirpate the latter in this crush and struggle ; and if 
it is a little worse, it will itself be extirpated. 

I know nothing that more appropriately expresses 
this, than the phrase, "the struggle for existence" ; 
because it brings before your minds, in a vivid sort of 
way, some of the simplest possible circumstances con- 
nected with it. When a struggle is intense there must 
be some who are sure to be trodden down, crushed, and 
overpowered by others ; and there will be some who just 
manage to get through only by the help of the slightest 
accident. I recollect reading an account of the famous 
retreat of the French troops, under Napoleon, from 
Moscow. Worn out, tired, and dejected, they at length 
came to a great river over which there was but one 
bridge for the passage of the vast army. Disorganized 
and demoralized as that army was, the struggle must 
certainly have been a terrible one — every one heeding 
only himself, and crushing through the ranks and tread- 
ing down his fellows. The writer of the narrative, who 
was himself one of those who were fortunate enough to 
succeed in getting over, and not among the thousands 
who were left behind or forced into the river, ascribed 
his escape to the fact that he saw striding onward 
through the mass a great strong fellow — one of the 
French Cuirassiers, who had on a large blue cloak — 
and he had enough presence of mind to catch and retain 
a hold of this strong man's cloak. He says, "I caught 
hold of his cloak, and although he swore at me and 
cut at and struck me by turns, and at last, when he 
found he could not shake me off, fell to entreating me 



340 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

to leave go or I should prevent him from escaping, 
besides not assisting myself, I still kept tight hold of 
him, and would not quit my grasp until he had at last 
dragged me through." Here you see was a case of 
selective saving — if we may so term it — depending for 
its success on the strength of the cloth of the Cuiras- 
sier's cloak. It is the same in nature ; every species has 
its bridge of Beresina ; it has to fight its way through 
and struggle with other species ; and when well nigh 
overpowered, it may be that the smallest chance, some- 
thing in its color, perhaps — the minutest circumstance, 
— will turn the scale one way or the other. 

'Suppose that by a variation of the black race it had 
produced the white man at an}' time — you know that 
the Negroes are said to believe this to have been the 
case, and to imagine that Cain was the first white man, 
and that we are his descendants — suppose that this 
had ever happened, and that the first residence of this 
human being was on the West Coast of Africa, There 
is no great structural difference between the white man 
and the Negro, and yet there is something so singularly 
different in the constitutions of the two, that the 
malarias of that country, which do not hurt the black 
at all, cut off and destroy the white. Then you see 
there would have been a selective operation performed ; 
if the white man had risen in that way he would have 
been selected out and removed by means of the malaria. 
Now there really is a very curious case of selection of 
this sort among pigs, and it is a case of selection of 
color, too. In the woods of Florida there are a great 
many pigs ; and it is a very curious thing that they are 
all black, every one of them. Professor Wyman was 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 341 

there some years ago, and on noticing no pigs but these 
black ones, he asked some of the people how it was that 
they had no white pigs, and the reply was that in the 
woods of Florida there was a root which they called the 
Paint Root, and that if the white pigs were to eat any 
of it, it had the effect of making their hoofs crack, and 
they died; but if the black pigs ate any of it, it did 
not hurt them at all. Here was a very simple case of 
natural selection. A skillful breeder could not more 
carefully develop the black breed of pigs, and weed out 
all the white pigs, than the Paint Root does. 

To show you how remarkably indirect may be such 
natural selective agencies as I have referred to, I will 
conclude by noticing a case mentioned by Mr. Darwin, 
and which is certainly one of the most curious of its 
kind. It is that of the Humble-Bee. It has been 
noticed that there are a great many more humble-bees 
in the neighborhood of towns, than out in the open 
country ; and the explanation of the matter is this : the 
humble-bees build nests, in which they store their honey 
and deposit the larvse and eggs. The field mice are 
amazingly fond of hone}' and larvas ; therefore, wherever 
there are plenty of field mice, as in the country, the 
humble-bees are kept down ; but in the neighborhood of 
towns, the number of cats which prowl about the fields 
eat up the field mice, and of course the more mice tney 
eat up the less there are to prey upon the larvee of the 
bees — the cats are therefore the indirect helpers of the 
bees.* Coming back a step farther we may say that 

* The humble-bees, on the other hand, are direct helpers of aome plaat£, 
such as the heartsease and red clover, which are fertilized by the visits of 
the bees ; and they are indirect helpers of the numerous insects which are 
more or less completely supported by the heartsease and red clover. — 
Author' a Note. 



342 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the old maids are also indirect friends of the humble- 
bees, and indirect enemies of the field mice, as they 
keep the cats which eat up the latter. This is an illus- 
tration somewhat beneath the dignity of the subject, 
perhaps, but it occurs to me in passing, and with it I 
will conclude this lecture. 



XXVI 

ELECTRICITY ADVANCING FARM 
PROSPERITY * 

James Burton 

It is a curious thing that farming, which is so all- 
important to the very life of the nation, should have 
lagged so far behind in introducing labor-saving devices 
in its manifold activities. It is onl}' recently that even 
a fraction of the attention given to manufacturing ef- 
ficiency has been paid to improving farm methods. Per- 
haps the chief factor which has played a part in such 
improvement has been the widespread development of 
electricity. City life is inconceivable without electricitj' 
and the time is rapidly approaching when the farmer 
cannot conduct his life and activities without all the 
aid which modern electrical science has placed at his 
disposal. 

Probably the first consideration in installing elec- 
trical devices on the farm is the source of electric cur- 
rent. Now that electric power is being so generally 
used and is therefore being distributed over wide areas, 
it is usually possible for all except the most isolated 
farmers to obtain it from a central power station. This 
should be done whenever possible, as it is the less 
expensive way and the most satisfactory from every 
point of view. There is a minimum charge for service, 

* From Export, American Industries, by permisBion. 

343 



34,4 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the cost of maintenance and upkeep is eliminated and 
the amount of power is not limited as it is in an isolated 
plant set up on an individual farm. In almost every 
case, if comparison is made in costs of getting power 
even from a distant station and in generating it on the 
farm, the advantage is distinctly in favor of the former 
method. If the isolated plant is absolutely unavoidable, 
an expert should be consulted who will make a survey 
of the conditions under which the plant will have to 
work and install a system which will be most practicable 
for the demands upon it. Cheapness should not be 
made the primary consideration when setting up a 
power plant, because in the long run the more expensive 
equipment pays for itself, and especially if the added 
expense has gone into increased equipment, future needs 
and expansion are thereby provided for. 

Once supplied with electric power, by whatever means 
it is secured, the application of electricity to the farm 
is almost unlimited. In the dairy, electricity can be 
used to run the milking machines which are being 
employed more and more to meet the needs of modern 
sanitation. In every case where such machines have 
been installed they have brought about a saving in labor 
costs and economy in method. Two or three men can 
do the work which formerly required eight or ten, and 
a great deal more speed is possible than by the old 
method. Electricity can be applied to about twenty 
other dairy uses in addition to the milking machines. 
Cream separators and pasteurizers can be motor driven, 
and churns, bottle and can washers are other devices 
which can be most advantageously run by electricity. 

Refrigerating plants, so very necessary on the farm 



ELECTRICITY 345 

when ice is not available, and preferable to natural ice 
cooling in any case, can be ideally operated by elec- 
tricity. Such a plant can be made automatic, thus 
regulating the refrigeration to order. Ice cutting is 
done away with ; the space formerly occupied by ice 
can be used for store rooms and the cooling or cold 
storage is accomplished with the minimum of time, 
effort, and cost. 

One of the most important applications of power to 
farm uses is that of the water pump. A one or two 
horse power motor will usually supply all the water 
needed for the farm and dairy and the pumping equip- 
ment can easily be made automatic so that no attention 
need be paid to it except to oil it at frequent intervals. 

Barn and field machinery can be run by electricity to 
excellent advantage. Feed grinders, corn shellers, 
ensilage cutters, grain elevators, threshers and graders, 
hay hoists and balers, and a dozen other of the neces- 
sary farm engines are capable of electric application. 
By installing a motor at a central point, it can often be 
made to operate several machines simultaneously or, if 
power is limited, various different machines which are 
not used at the same time. 

Recently some interesting experiments have been 
made in the use of electricity in the chicken business. 
Incubators and brooders can be kept warm by electric 
heat, and it is even said that hens can be induced to 
lay more frequently and regularl}'^ if kept in properly 
lighted hen houses, certainly a most useful application 
of the ever-useful electric light. 

In the farm work, a small motor to operate grind- 
stones, saws, drills, and blowers is very useful, and 



346 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

electric soldering irons and glue pots can be utilized in 
many ways of great value. 

The advantages of electricity in the farm home are 
much the same as in a city home, but are perhaps more 
appreciated in the country because the demands upon 
the housewife's time are so much greater and the work 
she does is so much heavier than that of her city cousin. 
Now that domestic help is so difficult to secure, even 
in the cities, and much more so in the country, the farm 
woman must depend more and more upon herself and 
she will welcome any lightening of her labors that can 
be effected by electrical devices. Bread mixers, vacuum 
cleaners, washing machines, sewing machines, and water 
pumps are some of the most popular and labor-saving 
electrical appliances for the farm home. 

These are but a few of the many uses to which elec- 
tricity ma}"^ be put on the farm, but they are enough to 
indicate its varied and widespread applications. The 
cost — always an important item — is small in com- 
parison with the results accomplished. The low costs 
of electricity are amazing in any case. Electric light 
is one of the few things which has decreased in cost in 
the last few years, and the same is true, in lesser degree, 
of other forms of electricity. When one stops to con- 
sider that, at current rates, one cent's worth of elec- 
tricity will operate a six-pound flatiron for fifteen min- 
utes, drive an electric vacuum cleaner long enough to 
clean four hundred and fifty square feet of carpet, run a 
sewing machine or a twelve-inch fan for two hours, lift 
one hundred gallons of water one hundred feet, run a 
buffer and grinder for one and a quarter hours, or do 
a washer full of Avashing, the cost shrinks into insignif- 



ELECTRICITY 347 

icance and the advantages appear inestimable. Then, 
too, there is always this to be remembered, that the 
electric motor consumes power only when in actual 
operation and in direct proportion to the amount of 
work done. There is, therefore, no Avaste or extrava- 
gance involved. 

A description of a model farm, so far as electric 
installation is concerned, will show the practical uses 
to which electricity may be put. This farm is in Iowa 
and in many ways is typical of the Middle Western 
farm. The buildings are all new and of modern con- 
struction and are electrically lighted throughout. Over 
the door of the garage is a lamp which lights the walks 
from house to barns and which can be controlled from 
four points. This does away with the use of the 
lantern as the light can be turned on before leaving the 
house and upon reaching the barn. In the main barn 
there is a seven and a half horse-power motor which 
drives a feed mill. This mill is practically automatic, 
as long as experience has shown just where to set the 
slide gate in the feed chute so that the mill receives the 
proper amount of unground oats or corn and it can 
be therefore run without any attention. Near the feed- 
mill is a one horse-power motor belted to a shaft 
formerl}' driven by a wind-mill. This shaft runs out- 
doors to a pump which delivers water to a concrete 
tank from which pipes lead to the various watering- 
troughs for the stock. One of these troughs is placed 
in the wall of the stock shed so that it can be reached 
from without or within. To prevent the water in the 
outside trough from freezing in cold weather, a small 
electric immersion heater has been installed which keeps 



348 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the water above the freezing point and ready to drink. 
This device saves a great deal of work. There is a 
motor-driven feed cutter that prepares feed directly 
for use and does away with the need for storing ground 
feed in large quantities. 

In the house there are electrical devices too, as the 
modern equipment is not confined to the farm equip- 
ment alone. There is a very complete electric lighting 
system and a plumbing installation supplied by a small 
rotary pump. This pump delivers water into a concrete 
pressure tank. In the laundry there is a combined 
washing machine and wringer driven by a small motor. 
The kitchen also has various electric devices. Not 
only are there the more usual devices such as an elec- 
tric iron, a vacuum cleaner, and a sewing machine 
motor, but an electric cooking range, with three burners 
on top and an oven underneath. This range keeps the 
kitchen cool in summer and is useful in the winter if 
fuel for the coal range runs short or the fire goes out. 

This farm has 320 acres, on which about 150 head of 
cattle and 300 hogs are fed. With the aid of the various 
electrical devices it is possible for the owner to take 
care of the stock in winter with the aid of one boy and 
in the summer to concentrate on the purely productive 
work of the farm. The electric bills run about ten 
dollars a month, a very low figure considering the 
amount of power and light used. 

Electricity is undoubtedly the motive power of the 
future not only on the farm, but in every phase of 
existence where power is needed. To supply himself 
with it now only means that the farmer is anticipating 
his future needs besides providing the most desirable 



ELECTRICITY 349 

solution for all the present problems which have seemed 
so difficult on account of lack of suitable power facil- 
ities. Electricity can do much to lighten the daily 
toil — the sunrise-to-sunset ceaseless labor which has 
always been characteristic of farm work. In fact, it 
almost seems to be the panacea for all the troubles of 
the farmer. Farming accomplished by the touch of an. 
electric button seems a fairy tale, but who knows what 
the future may bring forth? Going back to the land 
may soon be the most desirable thing in the world 
instead of the worst, as sundry disgruntled fanners 
would have had us believe in the past. 



XXVII 

THE GASOLINE ENGINE ON THE FARM* 

Xexo W. Putnam 

The world is asking for bread and the farmer must 
supply it. For that purpose he cultivates his lands. 
The call of the farmer is for efficient helpers. There 
is a scarcity of workmen which is hampering him at 
every turn. It required 50,000 acres, some one has 
figured, to supply the meager necessities of a single 
savage, but less than twenty-five acres are available to 
supply the more exacting demands of each citizen 
to-day. Intensive culture alone can meet the demand; 
more Mork and better work on every available acre, and 
the call for extra helpers which cannot be answered with 
men must be met by machinery. The farmer of the 
future must be a mechanic rather than a day laborer. 
He will have time for little but the intellectual part of 
.soil-tilling, while the manual labor will more and more 
of it be done with wheels and levers. Hand labor was 
long ago dispensed with in the mill and factory 
wherever possible because it is more expensive than the 
factory can afford. The farmer has adhered to the 
harder and more costly method and has performed 
work manually that some adequate farm power might 
have done better and cheaper. 

* From "The Ga-soline Engine on the Farm," by permission of The 
Norman W. Henley Pub. Co. 

350 



THE GASOLINE ENGFNE 351 

Many devices that might have reduced the labor of 
the farmer have never been placed upon the market, 
because all farm machinery formerly had to be re- 
stricted to the limits of the horse in power and speed. 
In this respect the farm implement designer has been 
more seriously hampered than any other class of inven- 
tors. Without the aid of steam and electricity our 
factories would still be in their infancy. How much 
the world has lost through its most important industry, 
agriculture, because of this unfortunate limit placed 
upon her field appliances can only be guessed at. 
Manj' valuable inventions have been abandoned because 
they had to be made too light or too slow for effective 
work, in order that they might be handled by the 
ordinary farm team. 

The call of the farm is for power ; some means by 
which the intelligence of a single man can direct a force 
that will do as much work as a dozen or a hundred 
men could do with their unaided hands. Farming has 
indeed advanced from the plane of simply making a 
living to that of a great commercial project. From 
plowing to shelling, it takes four and one half hours' 
work to raise one bushel of corn by hand. Machinery 
and power reduce this to forty-one minutes. The same 
commercial arguments which demand power in the fac- 
tory render it even more necessary upon the farm. 

Various forms of farm power have been tried and 
have failed. The tread-mill was not a real power, but a 
clumsy means of transmitting the limited energy of 
some animal. It was unsteady, hard to operate, and 
soon became a synonym for drudgery. Sweep power is 
hard to move, cumbersome, and usually required the 



352 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

exposure of its operators to every storm. The water- 
wheel is of very restricted application. It may easily fail 
in dry weather and, at best, cannot be moved about. 
Wind mills are objectionable for the same reason; also 
from the unreliable nature of their motive force. Steam 
alone has been the only serious competitor of the horse 
in general farm work; still it is not by any means the 
ideal farm power. 

Much of the farmer's work is done in short runs and 
at many different places. His ideal power must be 
ready at a moment's notice and must not cost anything 
to maintain except while in use. It must be safe, re- 
liable, easy to operate and portable; not easily dis- 
turbed b}' weather conditions ; available at any place, 
indoors or out. Electricity might avail for all of this 
excepting portability, were it more generally to be ob- 
tained upon the farm. It usually is not, unless pro- 
duced by the borrowed energy of steam or gasoline 
engine at a good deal of waste in transmission or in 
transforming mechanical to electrical energy. 

The gasoline engine is the only power at the present 
time that has answered all of these various demands. It 
is a wonderfully flexible power, adapting itself to all 
conditions. While the teams are being fed the engine 
may be started upon a day's run at the feed mill, then 
the operator is free to go back to breakfast. No fuel is 
used, as is the case with a steam boiler, while steam is 
raised. The operator needs no greater mechanical 
training than should be considered necessary to prop- 
erly run a binder. If power Is needed in the kitchen to 
operate the washing machine two men can pick the 
engine up and take it there. If wanted In the farthest 



THE GASOLINE ENGINE 353 

corner of the wood lot it can be set on the farm wagon 
and conveyed there without the necessity of a second or 
third trip for water tank and fuel; neither is there a 
trail of feed-wires to erect. The driest and calmest 
weather does not disturb it, nor does it break away from 
its moorings in the fiercest wind. It can be obtained in 
one fourth horsepower sizes if required, while five thou- 
sand horsepower engines are in successful operation. 
It works properly in zero weather or excessive heat and 
functions no matter what the mercury registers. 

The most convincing argument in the world is 
achievement. Let us see what the gasoline engine has 
actually done; what it is now doing on the farm. In 
parts of the West where best known, it is driving the 
steam tractor from the field ; is plowing, harrowing, and 
seeding all in one operation, by the square mile instead 
of by the acre, and is doing the work better, as well as 
quicker and cheaper, than horsepower can do it. It is 
harvesting the grain when the fields are too soft to 
carry the ordinary binder and when the steam tractor 
would be helpless ; then, after threshing, it is conveying 
a part to market and converting the balance into the 
most available form for feeding cattle. It is loading 
hay in the fields and then unloading it in the barns or 
placing it in stacks. Without fear of hunger or thirst, 
it turns away from its source of supplies and requires 
no procession of fuel and water wagons to follow upon 
its trail. If the season is short or the weather threaten- 
ing", it turns the night into day with its own headlight 
and lives its working life in twenty-four hour days as 
cheerfully as in periods of eight or ten. Where neces- 
sary it has run without stopping from Monday morn- 



354. ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

ing till Saturday night with hardly an hour's attention 
during the entire time. 

The gasoline engine is irrigating fields and putting 
on the finishing touches of success where drought and 
failure threatened. It is annually saving to the world 
thousands of dollars' worth of fruit from the ravages of 
fungus and insect. It is digging the farmer's post- 
holes ; it is cutting his wood and hauling it to the sheds. 
It is taking out of farm life much of that drudger}"^ 
which destroys human life more through dreariness than 
through expended energy. Perhaps its greatest value 
is in the every-day humble occupations, and from these 
it never shirks. 

Unlike the general run of labor-saving instruments, 
the work of the gasoline engine is not completed in the 
field. It runs the washer and wringer for the housewife 
with ease, pumps the water for her, does the churning, 
skims the milk, and has even been known to sweep the 
floor, clean the carpet, wash the windows and the dinner 
dishes. In numberless ways, after doing the heavy field 
work, it has lightened the burden for some tired or semi- 
invalid housewife and added that touch of leisure or of 
beauty to the house or lawn so dear to the heart of the 
farm girl. 

Between the gasoline engine and the boys of the farm 
there seems to be a special bond of sympathy that re- 
moves from the latter those terrors of wood-pile and 
grindstone that drove his older brother from the farm. 
It silences the call of the city by rendering farm life 
the more attractive of the two. The boy is progressive 
unless his ambition is crushed out with hard work. His 
school life feeds his ambition and the farm must either 



THE GASOLINE ENGINE 355 

keep up with his love of progress or he will grow away 
from it. The engine is the boy's confidant and friend, 
for it develops in him that love of machinery upon which 
are based the world's achievements. 

Modern farm work has outgrown the capacities of a 
single pair of hands. The hired man is a necessity ; but 
where the number of places needing him is greatly in 
excess of the supply of desirable men, it is but natural 
that the farm which is best equipped for the elimination 
of drudgery is most attractive to the most progressive 
men. The engine is making it more desirable by making 
it more efficient, by shifting the drudgery of physical 
routine to the alertness of applied intelligence ; for 
drudgery always dulls the intellect and produces the 
lowest form of efficiency. 

The gasoline engine has done all this ; it is doing still 
more. Many of to-day's important industrial problems 
originate upon the farm and depend upon its produc- 
tiveness, its extension, and its life for their solution. As 
the proportion of workers remaining on the farm be- 
comes less, their importance to those who have left it 
becomes greater, and nothing raises the standard of 
civilization in any community so quickly as a decrease 
in the cost of power ; a conserving of human life by sur- 
rounding its workers with better conditions, which have 
been robbed of drudgery and no longer dwarf the intel- 
lectual man. The highest form of conservation applies 
to the world's men and women more than to her raw 
material. Manual labor has become too slow and it 
accomplishes too little; it cannot keep up with the de- 
mand. The only true economy in the use of human 
energy lies in putting it to some more productive work 



356 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

than that which a machine can do as well and twenty 
times as fast. The true place for the man himself is at 
the controlling lever, where more than automatic ma- 
chine action is needed and where human intelligence 
rules supreme. This wonderfully universal and flexible 
power is placing the modern farmer's work on a higher 
plane and is turning former hit-or-miss methods of 
farming into a definite science. 

In its one expression, the automobile, it has given 
farm intelligence its rightful place in the social world. 
It has broken down the false and undesirable social 
barriers that formerly existed between town and coun- 
try life and which, in a great measure, have been re- 
sponsible for the unpopularity of farm life among both 
city and country young people. To-day the best 
schools and lecture halls are placed within reach of the 
farm door, and country youth, surrounded at last by 
environments it craved, has made the most of them. 
After the hour of intellectual enj oyment they return to 
the farm still loyal to it, but with new ideals and a 
broader appreciation of life. 

The farm house itself, stripped of its atmosphere of 
drudgery and grinding toil, becomes an actual home 
where culture is no longer impossible. Out of the added 
leisure springs an influence of affection and respect that 
makes the man live a better life because of the home life 
from which the boy received his training. 



OUR FOREFATHERS AND FARMING 



XXVIII 

THE RURAL SOCRATES* 

H. C. HiRZEL 

It is no longer a controvertible point, whether the 
science of agriculture merits the distinguished attention 
of philosophical minds, and is the proper study of the 
most enlarged understanding; since the proof is beyond 
contradiction, that a judicious rural economy is one of 
the chief supports of the prosperity of a State. We 
every day see instances in common life, where the hap- 
piest disposition, most informed genius, superior talents, 
scientific knowledge, even probity and virtue, become 
useless, and are lost in the wreck of their possessor's 
fortune, if he omits to regulate his domestic affairs by 
the rules of a wise and prudent economy. The same 
observation may he extended to the wisest systems of 
legislature, and the best political institutions, which 
lose their efficacy, and are incapable of defending a 
State from absolute ruin, unless a general scheme of 
economy', sensibly executed, provides for the sub- 
sistence of the people ; either by finding within itself 
those productions requisite to the support of indi- 
viduals, or exciting a spirit of industry to exchange with 
foreign nations the produce of manufactories, for the 
necessaries of life. There is something so seducing to 

* From "Rural Economy." "The Rural Socrates," memfoirs of a, 
country philosopher, -was published in the German and the French ia the 
18th century. 

359 



360 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

the imagination in this last method, that there is danger 
of suffering ourselves to be deceived, in giving it a pref- 
erence to the former. Through the medium of com- 
merce, manufactures invite into the country, where 
they flourish, not onl)^ the necessaries of life, but every 
superfluity of wealth and luxury. However parsi- 
monious the hand of Nature may have been to such a 
country, it soon becomes more affluent than the most 
fertile soils, and increases in power and population 
almost miraculously. Yet, if agriculture remains neg- 
lected, all these advantages will be fluctuating and un- 
certain ; while, on the contrary, where that is considered 
as the first object of national attention, it conducts 
directly and invariably to the end desired, without ex- 
posing us to the caprice of fortune. A State that 
amply produces the sustenance of its inhabitants from 
its own bowels, has, at least, the advantage of inde- 
pendency ; whUe the richest nation, when obliged to have 
recourse to the assistance of foreigners for the neces- 
saries of life, submits to all the vicissitudes of unfore- 
seen events ; and, in many instances, must be sub- 
servient to the cordial or unfriendly disposition of its 
neighbors. 

Though the pride and absurdity of polite people 
have affected to treat it with ridicule and contempt, and 
even to degrade its followers as a very inferior race of 
beings ; yet to speak of husbandmen as a society, they 
are, perhaps, more deserving of philosophical con- 
sideration and inspection, than any other society in the 
world ! In the country, humanity presents itself to our 
view, in a state of innocent simplicity, resembling, in 
some degree, the state of nature. The distinct facul- 



THE RURAL SOCRATES 361 

ties and properties of the soul may be analyzed with 
greater ease, as they are less disguised and oppressed 
with a tinsel parade of artificial ornaments. A chain 
of reflection instructed me in this great truth, that 
intrinsic magnanimity of soul is unconfined to rank ; 
and that the meanest condition furnishes instances of 
exalted sentiment and understanding, capable of con- 
tributing to the general good of the community. I was 
likewise convinced that in all situations the conscious- 
ness of a rational application of our talents, the recti- 
tude and integrity of our actions, are the sources of 
that pure and tranquil joy which is the constant result 
and reward of virtue. Mankind is the same in all na- 
tions: the different gradations of genius are equally 
discernible in the cottage and the palace. I could trace 
among plowmen, the character of a Lycurgus, a 
Socrates, a Plato, a Homer, and a Lucian ! Nor ought 
T to conceal, that the marks of vice were sometimes to 
be met with. The apparent distinction between these 
rustics and the fashionable part of the world seems to 
consist in the objects, not degree, of ratiocination. The 
country is the proper school for acquiring a more inti- 
mate knowledge of human nature: for forming just 
ideas of happiness, and for discerning what con- 
stitutes the true greatness of man. Here I learned to 
despise the ridiculous vanity of those literary geniuses, 
who fancy their extensive erudition places them in a 
superior order of beings ; where, it is evident, their 
understanding is frequently clouded with prejudices, 
and their will, a slave to the dominion of the passions. 
This vanity, the excrescence of knowledge, is as con- 
temptible as it is apparent to the eyes of a true 



362 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

philosopher. My sentiments now became more en- 
larged; all the disadvantageous descriptions of the 
manners and genius of those we call savages grew sus- 
pected, and I lamented our deficiency in relations of 
traveling philosophers, capable of investigating the 
secret recesses of the human heart, and contemplating 
the progress of nature, in her uncultivated oflFspring, 
with judicious and impartial observation. I am per- 
suaded such remarks would throw new light on our 
enquiries into the different degrees of perfection in the 
intellectual faculty, and furnish the friends of human 
nature with materials for admiration and gratitude to 
the wisdom and goodness of the Creator in the order 
and disposition of His creatures. We should find that 
those nations whom we brand as savage, might, with 
much more propriety, retort the appellation on their 
polite guests, who forcibly dispossess them of wealth 
and liberty ! Nor should we have any remaining doubts, 
whether those among them, who have participated of the 
manners and sciences of the Europeans, act conform- 
ably to sense, in seizing the first opportunity, with 
eagerness, of returning to the simple and rational life 
of their countrymen ! 

After the preference I have given to a rural life, in 
regard to the agreeable, as well as the useful part, I 
trust the world will not condemn me, if, in those hours 
of relaxation which the busiest life allows, I return 
sometimes to what constituted the enjoyment of my 
youthful days. Surely I shall not incur its censure, for 
seeking to inculcate and extend some useful reflections, 
whose truth was then familiar to me ; or for desiring to 
awaken in my fellow citizens a taste for so noble an 



THE RURAL SOCRATES 363 

employment, and offering tliem, in the improvement of 
their own estates, the means of essentially promoting 
the welfare of their country. Finally, may I not be 
permitted, with impunity, to relieve myself from the 
anxious fatigue inseparable from the practice of 
physic, by a recreation that tends manifestly to public 
emolument ? 

I must nevertheless acknowledge that the methods 
hitherto pursued do not appear to me the best calcu- 
lated to answer the purposes of improvement. An 
eager pursuit after new experiments prevails among 
those whose knowledge of the ancient husbandry is 
superficial and incompetent. Some there are who flatter 
themselves with being considered as the great improvers 
of agriculture, from the introduction of some unknown 
species of corn, or artificial grass. There are others 
who expect fame from the invention of some new imple- 
ment of tillage or different method of plowing and sow- 
ing; while still others hope to acquire it by untried 
objects of attention, sucli as the culture of mulberry- 
trees, for encouraging the breed of silk-worms, and so 
forth. In opposition to these opinions, I apprehend 
the first principle we ought to set out upon is a perfect 
knowledge of tlie nature of soils, with a competent 
insight of such methods of manuring as are practised 
by the most indefatigable and industrious farmers for 
the attainment of a degree of fertility. What remains 
is to procure a free communication of these discoveries 
in husbamdry, and an endeavor, by all possible means, 
to incite a laudable and fervent emulation in the farmers. 
This I should think an eligible plan for restoring agri- 
culture to a flourishing state. The most circumscribed 



364 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

genius may follow practical rules, unmolested by any 
obstacle; while new inventions are attended with a 
crowd of difficulties and objections. One part of man- 
kind believe that, in adopting them, we insult the 
memory of our worthy progenitors, who, according to 
their way of reasoning, have transmitted to us the com- 
mon methods of cultivating lands ; and who, by their 
economy, love of labor, and many other respectable 
qualities, are deservedly objects of our imitation. 
Another part agree that the late discoveries are cer- 
tainly very beneficial to particular countries, but re- 
pugnant to the nature of our soil. There are yet a third 
set of objectors who allow all these improvements to 
have advantages in particular respects ; but assert 
that their superiority over the vulgar course of hus- 
bandry is so equivocal, they must, at least, be con- 
sidered as of small utility. Instead of contenting our- 
selves with recommending the husbandry of our best 
farmers as a model for others, let them be encouraged 
to pursue it by the testimony and conviction of their 
own eyes. The experience necessary to assure them 
whether such or such methods are best adapted to the 
nature of the soil and climate is already attained, and 
the advantages arising from them easily calculated. 
Besides, that it cannot be disputed, notwithstanding 
what has been alleged of the general decline of agricul- 
ture among us, there are farmers in Switzerland who 
may be accused of anything rather than ignorance in 
husbandry. A more universal and generous diffusion of 
the knowledge of individuals seems all that is wantinj^ 
to bring this art to perfection. The traveller who 
crosses the greater part of our cantons is amazed at 



THE RURAL SOCRATES 365 

the diversity of natural riches presented to his view, in 
a country so wild and romantic. It is scarcely con- 
ceivable how the inhabitants have been able to collect, 
within so limited a spot, the various productions of 
almost every part of Europe! He traverses the fields 
covered with waving corn, terminated at the right and 
left with vineyards ; orchards of fruit conceal the 
villages from his sight ; while he hears the distant sound 
of lowing herds and bleating flocks from the mountains 
that furnish them with food! I will even venture to 
affirm that many strangers may draw useful observa- 
tions from the customs and practical regulations of 
our most distinguished farmers. Perhaps the paucity 
of writers in our own country may be the only reason 
for her not having acquired that reputation for rural 
economy which she enjoys with an uncontrolled title in 
all other branches of the arts. 

I have no meaning on the other side to depreciate the 
merit of those noble-minded fellow citizens, who have 
appropriated a considerable part of the superfluity of 
their income to the procuring of new-invented imple- 
ments of husbandry: several sorts of grain and grass- 
seeds, trees and shrubs unknown in our climate, which 
have the experience of other countries in their favor, 
as well as the trials made before they were communi- 
cated. These public-spirited attentions, of whose good 
efTects we have already reaped some advantage, un- 
doubtedly merit our commendation and acknowledg- 
ment. The introduction of potatoes, turkey, corn, or 
maize, and the progress of preparing turf or peat for 
fuel, may be comprised in the number : yet this plan for 
the improvement of agriculture appears more uncertain 



366 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

and infinitely slower in its progress than that I have 
ventured to recommend. More uncertain, because men 
are too apt to embellish a favorite theory in their 
writings. The species of vegetation or method of 
manuring they are fond of is often extolled far beyond 
reality, and they give the reins to fancy in lavish 
descriptions of ideal excellence. It must be a long 
course of experiments that alone can determine whether 
this or that corn or grass may be naturalized with real 
benefit to a country, or the adoption of a new system of 
husbandry, with its attendant expense, be an ad- 
vantageous compensation for abandoning the old one. 
Experiments commonly succeed to admiration in a Mell- 
cultivated garden or nursery ground; but when ex- 
tended to large inclosures, the luxuriance of the pro- 
duce is often greatly checked and diminished, and its 
utility absorbed in the expense of labor. I have also 
observed that new inventions are very slow in their 
effects, and can be of no real benefit till they become 
habitually established customs. It is a work of time 
to convince a peasant that the alterations you propose 
are eligible ; to persuade him to a renunciation of rooted 
prejudices, and to desert the course of husbandry in- 
stilled into him by his forefathers, in favor of novelty 
and inexperience. 



XXIX 

EXTRACTS FROM A DIARY 

George Washington 

April 7th, 1785. — ^Cut two or three rows of the wheat 
(Cape wheat) within six inches of the ground, it being 
near eighteen inches high, that which was first sown, and 
the blades of the whole singed with the frost. 

8th. — Sowed oats to-day in drills at Muddy Hole 
with my barrel plough. Ground much too wet ; some of 
it had been manured, but had been twice ploughed, then 
listed, then twice harrowed before sowing; which, had 
it not been for the frequent rains, would have put the 
ground in fine tilth. Ploughed up the turnip patch at 
home for orchard grass. 

10th. — Began bricklaying to-day. Completed sow- 
ing, with twenty-four quarts of oats, thirty-eight rows 
at Muddy Hole ten feet apart, in the ground intended 
for corn. 

11th. — Sowed twenty-six rows of barley in the same 
field at Muddy Hole in the same manner, with the drill 
plough, and with precisely the same workings the oats 
had adjoining thereto. This was done with twelve 
quarts of seed. After three ploughings and three har- 
rowings, sowed millet in eleven rows three feet apart, 
opposite to the overseer's house in the Neck. Per- 

367 



368 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

celveJ the last sowed oats at Dogue Run, and those sown 
in the Neck, were coming up. 

12//i. — Sowed sixteen acres of Siberian wheat, with 
eighteen quarts, in rows between corn, eight feet apart. 
This ground had been prepared in the following manner. 
(1) A single furrow; (2) another in the same to deepen 
it; (3) four furrows to throw the earth back into the 
two first, which made ridges of five furrows. These, being 
done some time ago, and the sowing retarded by fre- 
quent rains, had got hard; therefore, (4) before the 
seed was sown, these ridges were split again by running 
twice in the middle of them, both times in the same fur- 
row; (5) after which the ridges were harrowed; and, 
(6) where the ground was lumpy, run a spiked roller 
with a harrow at the tail of it, which was found verj'^ ef- 
ficacious in breaking the clods and pulverizing the earth, 
and would have done it perfectly, if there had not been 
too much moisture remaining from the late rains. After 
this, harrowing and rolling where necessary, the wheat 
was sown Avith the drill plough on the reduced ridges 
eight feet apart, as above mentioned, and harrowed iji 
with the small harrow belonging to the plough. But it 
should have been observed, that, after the ridges were 
split by the middle double furrows, and before they were 
closed again by the harrow, a little manure was 
sprinkled in them. 

At Dogue Run, listing the ground intended for 
Siberian wheat, barley, &c., a second time. 

At Muddy Hole sowed with the drill plough two rows 
of the Albany pease betw^een the corn rows, to see 
whether they would come to anything for want of the 
support which they give one another when sown broad- 



EXTRACTS FROM A DIARY 369 

cast. The same management given the ground as for 
oats and barley at this place. 

ISfh. — ^Sowed oats in drills ten feet apart, between 
corn rows in the Neck, twenty-four rows, in the follow- 
ing manner. (1) A single furrow; (2) another and deep 
furrow in this; (3) four bouts to these; (4) ploughed 
agarin in the same manner; (5) a single furrow in the 
middle of these; (6) manure sprinkled in this furrow; 
(7) the great harrow with the drill or barrel plough, and 
harrowed in with the harrow at the tail of it. Note. — It 
should have been observed, that the field intended for 
experiments at this plantation is divided into three 
parts, by bouting rows running crosswise; and that 
manure, and the last single furrow, are (at least for the 
present) bestowed on the most westerly of those nearest 
the Barn. 

14fth. — Harrowed the ground at Muddy Hole, which 
had been twice ploughed, for Albany pease in broad- 
cast. At Dogue Run began to sow the remainder of the 
Siberian wheat, about fourteen quarts, which had been 
left at the Ferry ; run deep furrows in the middle, and 
made five-feet ridges. Did the same for carrots in the 
same field on the west side next the meadow. Ordered 
a piece of ground, two acres, to be ploughed at the 
Ferry around the old corn-house, to be drilled with corn 
and potatoes between, each ten feet apart, row from row 
of the same kind. Sowed in the Neck, or rather planted, 
next to the eleven rows of millet, thirty-five rows of the 
rib-grass seeds, three feet apart, and one foot asunder 
in the rows. 

15th. — Sowed six bushels of the Albany pease broad- 
cast at Muddy Hole, on about an acre and a half of 



370 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

ground, which was harrowed yesterday as mentioned 
above. 

Sowed in the Neck along side of the rib-grass fifty 
rows of burnet seed, exactly as the last was put in; 
that is, in three feet rows, and one foot in the row. 



XXX 

A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON 

George Washington 

Mount Vernon, 4 October, 1795. 
Dear Sir, 

I am much pleased with the account you have given 
of the succory. This, like all other things of the sort 
with me, since my absence from home, has come to 
nothing; for neither my overseers nor manager will 
attend properly to anything but the crops they have 
usually cultivated ; and, in spite of all I can say, if there 
is the smallest discretionary power allowed them, they 
Avill fill the land with Indian corn, although even to 
themselves there are the most obvious traces of its bane- 
ful effects. I am resolved, however, as soon as it shall 
be in my power to attend a little more closely to my own 
concerns, to make this crop yield in a degree to other 
grain, to pulses, and to grasses. I am beginning again 
Avith chiccory, from a handful of seed given me b}^ Mr. 
Strickland, which, though flourishing at present, has no 
appearance of seeding this year. Lucerne has not suc- 
ceeded better with me than with you ; but I will give it 
another and a fairer trial before it is abandoned alto- 
gether. Clover, when I can dress lots well, succeeds 
with me to my full expectation, but not on the fields in 
rotation, although I have been at much cost in seeding 

371 



372 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

them. This has greatly disconcerted the system of 
rotation on which I had decided. 

I wish you may succeed in getting good seed of the 
winter vetch, I have often imported it, but the seed 
never vegetated, or in so small a proportion, as to be 
destroyed by weeds. I believe it would be an acquisition, 
if it was once introduced properly in our farms. The 
Albany pea, which is the same as the field pea of 
Europe, I have tried, and found it will grow well; but 
is subject to the same bug which perforates the garden 
pea, and eats out the kernel. So it will happen, I fear, 
with the pea you propose to import. I had great ex- 
pectation fi*om a green dressing with buckwheat, as a 
preparatory fallow for a crop of wheat, but it has not 
answered my expectation yet. I ascribe this, however, 
more to mismanagement in the times of seeding and 
ploughing in, than any defect of the system. The first 
ought to be so ordered, in point of time, as to meet a 
convenient season for ploughing it in, while the plant is 
in its most succulent state. But this has never been 
done on my farms, and consequently has drawn as much 
from, as it has given to the earth. It has always ap- 
peared to me that there were two modes in which buck- 
wheat might be used advantageously as a manure. One, 
to sow early, and, as soon as a sufficiency of seed is 
ripened, to stock the ground a second time, to turn the 
whole in, and when the succeeding growth is getting in 
full bloom, to turn that in also, before the seed begins to 
ripen; and, when the fermentation and putrefaction 
ceases, to sow the ground in that state, and plough in 
the wheat. The other mode is, to sow the buckwheat so 
]ate, as that it shall be generally about a foot high at 



A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON Slti 

the usual seeding of wheat ; then turn it in, and sow 
thereon immediately, as on a clover lay, harrowing in 
the seed lightly to avoid disturbing the buried buck- 
wheat. I have never tried the latter method, but see no 
reason against its succeeding. The other, as I observed 
above, I have prosecuted, but the buckwheat has always 
stood too long, and consequently had got too dry and 
sticky to answer the end of a succulent plant. 

But of all the improving and ameliorating crops, 
none in my opinion is equal to potatoes, on stiff and 
hard bound land, as mine is. I am satisfied, from a 
variety of instances, that on such land a crop of po- 
tatoes is equal to an ordinary dressing. In no instance 
have I failed of good wheat, oats, or clover, that fol- 
lowed potatoes ; and I conceive they give the soil a 
darker hue. I shall thank you for the result of your 
proposed experiment relative to the winter vetch and 
pea when 'they are made. 

I am sorry to hear of the depredations committed 
by the weevil in your parts ; it is a great calamity at all 
times, and this year, when the demand for wheat is so 
great, and the price so high, must be a mortifying one 
to the farmers. The rains have been very general, and 
more abundant since the 1st of August, than ever hap- 
pened in a summer within the memory of man. Scarcely 
a mill-dam, or bridge, between this and Philadelphia, 
was able to resist them, and some were carried off a 
second and third time. 

Mrs. Washington is thankful for your kind remem- 
brance of her, and unites with me in best wishes for you- 
With very great esteem and regard, I am, dear Sir, &c 



XXXI 

LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE * 

Abraham Lincoln 

Members of the Agricultural Society and Citizens of 
Wisconsin : Agricultural fairs are becoming an insti- 
tution of the country. They are useful in more ways 
than one. They bring us together, and thereby make us 
better acquainted and better friends than we otherwise 
would be. From the first appearance of man upon the 
earth down to very recent times the words "stranger" 
and "enemy" were quite or almost synonymous. Long 
after civilized nations had defined robbery and murder 
as high crimes, and had affixed severe punishments to 
them, when practised among and upon their own people 
respectively, it was deemed no oifense, but even meri- 
torious, to rob and murder and enslave strangers, 
whether as nations or as individuals. Even yet, this has 
not totally disappeared. The man of the highest moral 
cultivation, in spite of all which abstract principle can 
do, likes him whom he does know much better than him 
whom he does not know. To correct evils, great and 
small, which spring from want of sympathy, and from 
positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as in- 
dividuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization. 

* Annual laddress before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, at 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 30, 1859. As far as can be ascertained 
this is the only address Abraham Lincoln gave upon any agricultural sub- 
ject. Prom Lincoln's "Complete Works," by permission of the publishers. 
The Century Company. 

374 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 375 

To this end our agricultural fairs contribute in no small 
degree. They render more pleasant, and more strong 
and more durable, the bond of social and political union 
among us. Again, if, as Pope declares, "happiness is 
our being's end and aim," our fairs contribute much to 
that end and aim, as occasions of recreation, as holi- 
days. Constituted as man is, he has positive need of 
occasional recreation, and whatever can give him this 
associated with virtue and advantage, and free from 
vice and disadvantage, is a positive good. Such 
recreation our fairs afford. They are a present pleas- 
ure, to be followed by no pain as a consequence; they 
are a present pleasure, making the future more pleasant. 

But the chief use of agricultural fairs is to aid in 
improving the great calling of agriculture in all its de- 
partments and minute divisions ; to make mutual ex- 
change of agricultural discovery, information, and 
knowledge ; so that, at the end, all may know everything 
which may have been known to but one or to but few, at 
the beginning ; to bring together especially all which is 
supposed to be not generally known because of recent 
discovery or invention. 

And not only to bring together and to impart all 
which has been accidentally discovered and invented 
upon ordinary motive, but by exciting emulation for 
premiums, and for the pride and honor of success, — 
of triumph, in some sort, — to stimulate that discovery 
and invention into extraordinary activity. In this these 
fairs are kindred to the patent clause in the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and to the department and 
practical system based upon that clause. 

One feature, I believe, of every fair is a regular ad- 



376 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

dress. The Agricultural Society of the young, pros- 
perous, and soon to be great State of Wisconsin has 
done me the high honor of selecting me to make that 
address upon this occasion — an honor for which I make 
my profound and grateful acknowledgment. 

I presume I am not expected to employ the time 
assigned me in the mere flattery of the farmers as a 
class. My opinion of them is that, in proportion to 
numbers, they are neither better nor worse than other 
people. In the nature of things they are more numerous 
than any other class ; and I believe there really are more 
attempts at flattering them than any other, the reason 
for which I cannot perceive, unless it be that they can 
cast more votes than any other. On reflection, I am not 
quite sure that there is not cause of suspicion against 
you in selecting me, in some sort a politician and in no 
sort a farmer, to address you. 

But farmers being the most numerous class, it fol- 
lows that their interest is the largest interest. It also 
follows that that interest is most worthy to be cherished 
and cultivated — that if there be inevitable conflict be- 
tween that interest and any other, that other should 
yield. 

Again, I suppose it is not expected of me to impart 
to you much specific information on agriculture. You 
have no reason to believe, and do not believe, that I 
possess it; if that were what you seek in this address, 
any one of your own number or class would be more able 
to furnish it. You, perhaps, do expect me to give some 
general interest to the occasion, and to make some gen- 
eral suggestions on practical matters. I shall attempt 
nothing more. And in such suggestions by me, quite 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 377 

likely very little will be new to you, and a large part 
of the rest will be possibly already known to be 
erroneous. 

My first suggestion is an inquiry as to the effect of 
greater thoroughness in all the departments of agricul- 
ture than now prevails in the Northwest — perhaps I 
might say in America. To speak entirely within 
bounds, it is known that fifty bushels of wheat, or one 
hundred bushels of Indian corn, can be produced from 
an acre. Less than a year ago I saw it stated that a 
man, by extraordinary care and labor, had produced of 
wheat what was equal to two hundred bushels from 
an acre. But take fifty of wheat, and one hundred of 
corn, to be the possibility, and compare it with the 
actual crops of the country. Many years ago I saw it 
stated, in a patent-office report, that eighteen bushels 
was the average crop throughout the United States ; 
and this year an intelligent farmer of Illinois assures me 
that he did not believe that the land harvested in that 
State this season had yielded more than an average of 
eight bushels to the acre ; much was cut, and then aban- 
doned as not worth threshing, and much was abandoned 
as not worth cutting. As to Indian corn, and indeed, 
most other crops, the case has not been much better. For 
the last four years I do not believe the ground planted 
with corn in Illinois has produced an average of twenty 
bushels to the acre. It is true that heretofore we have 
had better crops with no better cultivation, but I be- 
lieve it is also true that the soil has never been pushed 
up to one half of its capacity. 

What would be the effect upon the farming interest 
to push the soil up to something near its full capacity.'* 



378 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

Unquestionably it will take more labor to produce fifty 
bushels from an acre than it will to produce ten bushels 
from the same acre ; but will it take more labor to pro- 
duce fifty bushels from one acre than from five? Un- 
questionably thorough cultivation will require more 
labor to the acre ; but will it require more to the bushel ? 
If it should require just as much to the bushel, there 
are some probable, and several certain, advantages in 
favor of the thorough cultivation. It is probable it 
would develop those unknown causes which of late years 
have cut down our crops below their former average. 
It is almost certain, I think, that by deeper plowing, 
analysis of the soils, experiments with manures and 
varieties of seeds, observance of seasons, and the like, 
these causes would be discovered and remedied. It is cer- 
tain that thorough Cultivation would spare half, or 
more than half, the cost of land, simply because the 
same product would be got from half, or from less than 
half, the quantity of land. This proposition is self- 
evident, and can be made no plainer by repetitions or 
illustrations. The cost of land is a great item, even in 
new countries, and it constantly grows greater and 
greaterj in comparison with other items as the country 
grows older. 

It also would spare the making and maintaining of 
inclosures for the same, whether these inclosures should 
be hedges, ditches, or fences. This again is a heavy 
item — ^heavy at first, and heavy in its continual demand 
for repairs. I remember once being greatly astonished 
by an apparently authentic exhibition of the proportion 
the cost of an inclosure bears to all the other expenses 
of tKe farmer, though I cannot remember exactly what 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 370 

that proportion was. Any farmer, if he will, can ascer- 
tain it in his own case for himself. 

Again a great amount of locomotion is spared by 
thorough cultivation. Take fifty bushels of wheat ready 
for harvest, standing upon a single acre, and it can be 
harvested in any of the known ways with less than half 
the labor which would be required if it were spread over 
five acres. This would be true if cut by the old hand- 
sickle; true, to a greater extent, if by the scythe and 
cradle ; and to a still greater extent, if by the machines 
now in use. These machines are chiefly valuable as a 
means of substituting animal-power for the power of 
man in this branch of farm-work. In the highest de- 
gree of perfection yet reached in applying the horse- 
power to harvesting, fully nine tenths of the power is 
expended by the animal in carrj^ing himself and drag- 
ging the machine over the field, leaving certainly not 
more than one tenth to be applied directly to the only 
end of the whole operation — the gathering in of the 
grain, and clipping of the straw. When grain is very 
thin on the ground, it is alwa3'^s more or less inter- 
mingled with weeds, chess, and the like, and a large part 
of the power is expended in cutting these. It is plain 
that when the crop is very thick upon the ground, a 
larger proportion of the power is directly applied In 
gathering in and cutting it; and the smaller to that 
which is totally useless as an end. And what I have 
said of harvesting is true in a greater or less degree of 
mowing, plowing, gathering in of crops generally, and 
indeed of almost all farm-work. 

The efi'ect of thorough cultivation upon the farmer's 
own mind, and in reaction through his mind back upon 



380 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

his business, is perhaps quite equal to any other of its 
eiFects. Every man is proud of what he does well, and 
no man is proud of that he does not well. With the 
former his heart is in his work, and he will do twice as 
much of it with less fatigue; the latter he performs a 
little imperfectly, looks at it in disgust, turns from it, 
and imagines himself exceedingly tired — the little he has 
done comes to nothing for want of finishing. 

The man who produces a good full crop will scarcely 
ever let a part of it go to waste ; he will keep up the in- 
closure about it, and allow neither man nor beast to 
trespass upon it ; he will gather it in due season, and 
store it in perfect security. Thus he labors with satis- 
faction, and saves himself the whole fruit of his labor. 
The other, starting with no purpose for a full crop, 
labors less, and with less satisfaction, allows his fences 
to fall, and cattle to trespass, gathers not in due season, 
or not at all. Thus the labor he has performed is 
wasted away, little by little, till in the end he derives 
scarcely anything from it. 

The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farming, 
even with men of energy. I scarcely ever knew a mam- 
moth farm to sustain itself, much less to return a profit 
upon the outlay. I have more than once known a man 
to spend a respectable fortune upon one, fail, and leave 
it, and then some man of modest aim get a small frac- 
tion of the ground, and make a good living upon it. 
Mammoth farms are like tools or weapons which are too 
heavy to be handled ; ere long they are thrown aside at 
a great loss. 

The successful application of steam-power to farm- 
work is a desideratum — especially a steam plow. It is 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 381 

not enough that a machine operated by steam will 
really plow. To be successful it must, all things con- 
sidered, plow better than can be done with animal- 
power. It must do all the work as well, and cheaper ; 
or more rapidly, so as to get through more perfectly in 
season ; or in some way afford an advantage over plow- 
ing with animals, else it is no success. I have never seen a 
machine intended for a steam plow. Much praise and 
admiration are bestowed upon some of them, and they 
may be, for aught I know, already successful; but I 
have not perceived the demonstration of it. I have 
thought a good deal, in an abstract way, about a steam 
plow. That one which shall be so contrived as to apply 
the larger proportion of its power to the cutting and 
turning of the soil, and the smallest, to the moving itself 
over the field, will be the best one. A very small sta- 
tionary engine would draw a large gang of plows 
through the ground from a short distance to itself ; but 
when it is not stationary, but has to move along like a 
horse, dragging the plows after it, it must have ad- 
ditional power to carry itself; and the difficulty grows 
with what is intended to overcome it; for what adds 
power also adds size and weight to the machine, thus 
increasing again the demand for power. 

Suppose you construct the machine so as to cut a 
succession of short furrows, say a rod in length, trans- 
versely to the course the machine is locomoting, some- 
thing like the shuttle In weaving. In such case the wholo 
machine would move north only the width of the furrow, 
while in length the furrow would be a rod from east to 
west. In such case a A'ery large proportion of the power 
would be applied to the actual plowing. But m this. 



382 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

too, there would be difficulty, which would be the getting 
of the plow into and out of the ground, at the end of 
all these short furrows. 

I believe, however, ingenious men will, if they have 
not already, overcome the difficulty I have suggested. 
But there is still another, about which I am less san- 
guine. It is the supply of fuel, and especially water, to 
make steam. Such supply is clearly practicable; but 
can the expense of it be borne? Steamboats live upon 
the water, and find their fuel at stated places. Steam- 
mills and other stationary steam-machinery have their 
stationary supplies of fuel and water. Railroad loco- 
motives have their regular wood and water stations. 
But the steam plow is less fortunate. It does not live 
upon the water, and if it be once at a water-station, 
it will work away from it, and when it gets away can- 
not return without leaving its work, at a great expense 
of its time and strength. It will occur that a wagon- 
and-horse team might be employed to supply it with fuel 
and water ; but this, too, is expensive ; and the question 
recurs, "Can the expense be borne?" When this is 
added to all other expenses, will not plowing cost more 
than in the old way? 

It is to be hoped that the steam-plow will be finall}' 
successful, and if it shall be, "thorough cultivation" — 
putting the soil to the top of its capacity, producing 
the largest crop possible from a given quantity of 
ground — will be most favorable for it. Doing a large 
amount of work upon a small quantity, it will be as 
nearly as possible stationary while working, and as 
free as possible from locomotion, thus expending its 
strength as much as possible in traveling. Our thanks, 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 383 

and something more substantial than thanks, are due to 
every man engaged in the effort to produce a successful 
steam-plow. Even the unsuccessful will bring some- 
thing to light which, in the hands of others, will con- 
tribute to the final success. I have not pointed out dif- 
ficulties in order to discourage, but in order that, being 
seen, they may be the more readily overcome. 

The world is agreed that labor is the source from 
which human wants are mainly supplied. There is no 
dispute upon this point. From this point, however, men 
immediately diverge. Much disputation is maintained 
as to the best way of applying and controlling the labor 
element. By some it is assumed that labor is available 
only in connection with capital — that nobody labors, 
unless somebody else owning capital, somehow, by the 
use of it, induces him to do it. Having assumed this, 
they proceed to consider whether it is best that capital 
shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by 
their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it, 
without their consent. Having proceeded so far, they 
naturally conclude that all laborers are naturally either 
hired laborers or slaves. They further assume that 
whoever is once a hired laborer, is fatally fixed in that 
condition for life ; and thence again, that his condition 
is as bad as, or worse than, that of a slave. This is the 
*'mud-sill" theory. But another class of reasoners hold 
the opinion that there is no such relation between capital 
and labor as assumed ; that there is no such thing as a 
free man being fatally fixed for life in the condition of a 
hired laborer; that both these assumptions are false, 
and all inferences from them groundless. They hold 
that labor is prior to, and independent of, capital ; that, 



384 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

in fact, capital is the fruit of labor, and could never 
have existed if labor had not first existed; that labor 
can exist without capital, but that capital could never 
have existed without labor. Hence they hold that labor 
is the superior — greatly the superior — of capital. 

They do not deny that there is, and probably always 
will be, a relation between capital and labor. The error, 
as they hold, is in assuming that the whole labor of the 
world exists within that relation. A few men own capi- 
tal ; and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their 
capital hire or buy another few to labor for them. A 
large majority belongs to neither class — neither work 
for others, nor have others working for them. Even in 
all our slave states, except South Carolina, a majority 
of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor 
masters. In these free states, a large majority are 
neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families — 
wives, sons, and daughters — work for themselves, on 
their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking 
the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors 
from capital on the one hand, nor of hirelings or slaves 
on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable 
number of persons mingle their own labor with capital 
— that is, labor with their own hands and also buy 
slaves or hire free men to labor for them ; but this is 
only a mixed, and not a distinct, class. No principal 
state is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. 
Again, as has already been said, the opponents of the 
"mud-sill" theory insist that there is not, of necessity, 
any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to 
that condition for life. There is demonstration for 
saying this. Many independent men in this assembly 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 385 

doubtless a few years ago were hired laborers. And 
their case is almost, if not quite, the general rule. 

The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors 
for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy 
tools or land for himself, then laDors on his own ac- 
count another while, and at length hires another new be- 
ginner to help him. This, say its advocates, is free labor 
— the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which 
opens the way for all, gives hope to all, and energy, and 
progress, and improvement of condition to all. If any 
continue through life in the condition of the hired 
laborer, it is not the fault of the system, but because of 
either a dependent nature which prefers it, or improvi- 
dence, folly, or singular misfortune. I have said this 
much about the elements of labor generally, as intro- 
ductory to a consideration of a new phase which that 
element is in process of assuming. The old general rule 
was that educated people did not perform manual labor. 
They managed to eat their bread, leaving the toil of pro- 
ducing it to the uneducated. This was not an insup- 
portable evil to the working bees, so long as the class of 
drones remained very small. But now, especially in 
these free states, nearly all are educated — quite too 
nearly all to leave the labor of the uneducated in any 
wise adequate to the support of the whole. It follows 
from this that henceforth educated people must labor. 
Otherwise, education itself would become a positive and 
intolerable evil. No country can sustain in idleness 
more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great 
majority must labor at something productive. From 
these premises the problem springs, "How can labor and 
education be the most satisfactorily combined?" 



386 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

By the "mud-sill" theory it is assumed that labor and 
education are incompatible, and any practicable com- 
bination of them impossible. According to that theory-, 
a blind horse upon a tread-mill is a perfect illustration 
of what a laborer should be — all the better for being 
blind, that he could not kick understandingly. Accord- 
ing to that theory, the education of laborers is not only 
useless but pernicious and dangerous. In fact, it is, in 
some sort, deemed a misfortune that laborers should 
have heads at all. Those same heads are regarded as 
explosive materials, only to be safely kept in damp 
places, as far as possible from that peculiar sort of fire 
which ignites them. A Yankee who could invent a 
strong-handed man without a head would receive the 
everlasting gratitude of the "mud-sill" advocates. 

But free labor says, "No." Free labor argiies that 
as the Author of man makes every individual with one 
head and with one pair of hands, it was probably in- 
tended that heads and hands should cooperate as 
friends, and that that particular head should direct and 
control that pair of hands. As each man has one mouth 
to be fed, and one pair of hands to furnish food, it was 
probably intended that that particular pair of hands 
should feed that particular mouth — that each head Is 
the natural guardian, director, and protector of the 
hands and mouth inseparably connected with it ; and 
that being so, every head should be cultivated and im- 
proved by whatever will add to its capacity for perform- 
ing its charge. In one word, free labor insists on uni- 
versal education. 

I have so far stated the opposite theories of "mud- 
sill" and "free-labor," without declaring any preference 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 387 

of my own between them. On an occasion like this, I 
ought not to declare any. I suppose, however, I shall 
not be mistaken in assuming as a fact that the people of 
Wisconsin prefer free labor, with its natural com- 
panion, education. 

This leads to the further reflection that no other 
human occupation opens so wide a field for the profit- 
able and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated 
thought, as agriculture. I know nothing so pleasant 
to the mind as the discovery of anything that is at once 
new and valuable — nothing that so lightens and sweetens 
toil as the hopeful pursuit of such discovery. And how 
vast and how varied a field is agriculture for such dis- 
covery! The mind, already trained to thought in the 
country school, or higher school, cannot fail to find 
there an exhaustless source of enjoyment. Every blade 
of grass is a study ; and to produce two where there was 
but one is botli a profit and a pleasure. And not grass 
alone, but soils, seeds, and seasons — hedges, ditches, and 
fences — draining, droughts, and irrigation — plowing, 
Iioeing, and harrowing — reaping, mowing, and thresh- 
ing — saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops, and 
what will prevent or cure them — implements, utensils, 
and machines, their relative merits, and how to improve 
them — -hogs, horses, and cattle — sheep, goats, and 
poultry — trees, shrubs, fruits, plants, and flowers — the 
thousand things of which these are specimens — each a 
world of study within itself. 

In all this, book-learning is available. A capacity 
and taste for reading gives access to whatever has 
already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one 
of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not 



388 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

only so: it gives a relish and facility for successful!}'' 
pursuing the unsolved ones. The rudiments of science 
are available, and highly available. Some knowledge of 
botany assists in dealing with the vegetable world — with 
all growing crops. Chemistry assists in the analysis of 
soils, selection and application of manures, and in 
numerous other ways. The mechanical branches of 
natural philosophy are ready help in almost everything, 
but especially in reference to implements and machinery. 

The thought recurs that education — cultivated 
thought — can best be combined with agricultural labor, 
or any labor, on the principle of thorough work ; that 
careless, half performed, slovenly work makes no place 
for such combination ; and thorough work, again, 
renders sufficient the smallest quantity of ground to 
each man ; and this, again, conforms to what must 
occur in a world less inclined to wars and more devoted 
to the arts of peace than heretofore. Population must 
increase rapidly, more rapidly than in former times, 
and ere long the most valuable of all arts will be the art 
of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest 
area of soil. No community whose every member pos- 
sesses this art, can ever be the victim of oppression in 
any of its forms. Such community will be alike 
independent of crowned kings, money kings, and land 
kings. 

But, according to your program, the awarding of 
premium awaits the closing of this address. Consider- 
ing the deep interest necessarily pertaining to that 
performance, it would be no wonder if I am already 
heard with some impatience. I will detain you but a 
moment longer. Some of you will be successful, and 



LINCOLN ON AGRICULTURE 389 

such will need but little philosophy to take them home in 
cheerful spirits ; others will be disappointed, and will 
be in a less happy mood. To such let it be said, "Lay 
it not too much to heart." Let them adopt the maxim, 
"Better luck next time," and then by renewed exertion 
make that better luck for themselves. 

And by the successful and unsuccessful let it be re- 
membered that while occasions like the present bring 
their sober and durable benefits, the exultations and 
mortifications of them are but temporary ; and that the 
victor will soon be vanquished if he relax in his exertion ; 
and that the vanquished this year may be victor the 
next, in spite of all competition. 

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise 
men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and 
which should be true and appropriate in all times and 
situations. They presented him the words, "And this, 
too, shall pass away." How much it expresses ! How 
chastening in the hour of pride ! How consoling in the 
depths of affliction ! "And this, too, shall pass away." 
And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, 
rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical 
world beneath and around us, and the best intellectual 
and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, 
social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose 
course shall be onward and upward, and which, while 
the earth endures, shall not pass away. 



XXXII 

THE EXCELLENCES OF AGRICULTURE * 
Xenophon 

"This anecdote I relate to you Critobulus," con- 
tinued Socrates, "to show that not even men of the most 
exalted fortune are contented to abstain from agricul- 
ture ; for the pursuit of it seems to be at once a means 
of enjoyment and of increasing their resources ; and it is 
also an exercise for the body, such as to strengthen it 
for discharging the duties that become a man of honor- 
able birth. In the first place, the earth yields the food 
on which men live to those who cultivate it, and produces 
in addition things from which they receive gratification. 
Besides these, it supplies the flowers which decorate 
altars and statues, and with which men adorn them- 
selves, accompanied with the most pleasing odors and 
appearances ; sauces and animal food, too, it partly 
produces and partly nourishes, in abundance (for the 
art of managing cattle is connected with farming) ; so 
that men have enough to propitiate the gods by sacrifi- 
cing, and to use themselves. Yet, though it offers bless- 
ings in the greatest plenty, it does not permit us to 
take them in idleness, but requires us to accustom our- 
selves to endure the colds of winter and the heats of 
summer; to those whom it exercises in manual labor, it 

* From Xenopton's Economics. Translated by the Rev. J. S. Watson. 

.300 



EXCELLENCES OF AGRICULTURE 391 

gives an increase of strength ; and in such as only over- 
see the cultivation of it, it produces a manly vigor, by 
requiring them to rise early in the morning, and forcing 
them to move about with activity ; for in the country, 
as well as in the city, the most important matters are 
always done at a stated season. Again, if a man wishes 
to serve his country as a horse-soldier, farming offers 
the greatest convenience for keeping a horse, or if as a 
foot-soldier, it keeps the body robust ; and it also affords 
some incitement to exertion in hunting over the land, 
supplying facilities for keeping of dogs, and support- 
ing beasts of game. The horses and dogs, moreover, 
which are kept by farming, benefit the farm in return ; 
the horse by carrying his master early in the morning 
to the scene of his labors, and furnishing him the means 
of returning late; the dogs by preventing the wild 
beasts from destroying the fruits of the earth and the 
cattle, and by affording security even in the most soli- 
tary places. 

"The possession of land also stimulates agriculturists, 
in some degree, to defend their country in arms, as the 
ground produces its fruits exposed to all, for the 
strongest to take possession of them. What occupa- 
tion, too, renders men more fit for running, and throw- 
ing, and leaping, than agriculture? What employment 
offers men greater gratification for their labor.? What 
art welcomes the student of it with greater pleasure, 
offering him that approaches, indeed, the means of gain- 
ing whatever he desires,? What occupation receives 
strangers with richer hospitality? Where is there 
greater facility for passing the winter amid plenty of 
fires, and warm baths, than on the farm ? Or where can 



392 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

we spend the summer more agreeably, by streams, amid 
breezes, and under shade, than in the fields? What 
other occupation offers more pleasing first-fruits to the 
gods, or richer banquets on festival days? What pur- 
suit is more comfortable for a man's servants, moi^e de- 
lightful to his wife, more attractive to his children, or 
more gratifying to his friends? I should be surprised, 
for my own part, if any man of liberal feelings has met 
with any possession more pleasing than a farm, or dis- 
covered any pursuit more attractive, or more conducive 
to the means of life, than agriculture. 

"The earth also kindly teaches men justice, at least 
such as are able to learn; for it is those who treat her 
best that she recompenses with the most numerous 
benefits. 

"If on any occasion, moreover, those who are em- 
ployed in agriculture are forced to quit their occupa- 
tions by a multitude of invading enemies, yet, as they 
have been bred to vigorous and manly exertion, and are 
well exercised in mind and body, they may, if the gods 
are not unfavorable, majce incursions into the lands of 
those who impede their occupations, and carry off 
booty on which they may support themselves. Fre- 
quently, indeed, in war, it is safer to seek a livelihood 
with hostile weapons than with instruments of agri- 
culture. 

"The cultivation of the ground, too, instructs men 
to assist one another ; for as we must make attacks on 
enemies with the aid of men, so it is with aid of men 
that agriculture must be conducted. He, therefore, 
that would till his ground properly must provide him- 
self with laborers both ready to work and willing to 



EXCELLENCES OF AGRICULTURE 393 

obey him ; and he that leads an army against an enemy 
must take similar precautions, rewarding those who act 
as good soldiers ought to act, and punishing those who 
arc neglectful of discipline. A husbandman must en- 
courage his workmen as frequently as a general exhorts 
his soldiers ; and slaves require favorable prospects to 
be held out to them not less than freemen, and indeed 
even more, that they may be willing to stay with their 
masters. He also said well, who pronounced agricul- 
ure to be the mother and nurse of other arts ; for when 
agriculture flourishes, all other pursuits are in full 
vigor ; but when the ground is forced to lie barren, other 
occupations are almost stopped, as well by land as by 
sea." 

When Critobulus had heard these remarks to an end, 
he said, "You seem to me, my dear Socrates, to say all 
this with great reason ; but you have not observed that 
there are connected with agriculture many things which 
it is impossible for man to foresee; for sometimes hail, 
frost, drought, violent rains, mildew, and often indeed 
other causes, deprive us of the fruit of what has been 
excellently contrived and arranged; and sometimes 
disease comes to carry off, in the most pitiable manner, 
cattle that have been bred with the utmost care." 

Socrates, listening to this, said, "I thought that you 
were aware, Critobulus, that the gods are disposers of 
affairs in agriculture not less than of those in war ; and 
you see, I suppose, that those who are engaged in the 
field of battle propitiate the gods before they come to 
an engagement, and consult them, with the aid of sacri- 
fices and auguries, to learn what they ought or ought 
not to do. And do you think that there is less necessity 



394 ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE 

to seek the favor of the gods with regard to the proceed- 
ings of agriculture? For be assured," added he, "that 
wise men worship the gods with a view to the preserva- 
tion of their fruits, as well succulent as dry, and of their 
oxen, horses, sheep, and all their other possessions." 



THE END 




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